American Victory: Wrestling, Dreams, and a Journey Toward Home Hardcover - 2010

by Henry Cejudo; Bill Plaschke

The son of illegal Mexican immigrants,Henry Cejudo surprised the worldby winning an Olympic gold medalin wrestling for the U.S.A. in Beijing.This is his inspiring story...

Henry Cejudo's remarkable journey follows anunlikely hero from the mean streets of South CentralL.A. to the glory of the Beijing Olympics. The firstAmerican in sixteen years to win the gold medal infreestyle wrestling and the youngest American goldmedalist ever in this event, Henry's grit, passion, andresolve on display in China was a culmination of alife spent fighting-both on and off the mat.

Henry was born into a world devoid of stability,one of tiny apartments and empty refrigerators,his mother on the run from immigration, and hisbrothers hanging around to toughen him up withdaily fights. Until he joined the U.S. Olympic team,he had never had three meals in a single day, neverhad his own bed, never even had a pillow.

American Victory is Henry's poignant and powerfulmemoir of growing up in a segment of the Americanpopulation that is too often overlooked andunderestimated, and how he rose above the statisticsand the dangers to become a winner-a hero whoembodies all that's best and most hopeful in theAmerican dream.