Erick Portillo, the world runner-up who lived under the stadium stands | Sports

Erick Portillo appears in the mixed zone, with a black t-shirt and pants, without a brand, the colors of Mexico on his chest, the backpack given as a gift by the organization of the World Championship and without a sad flag. Nobody had thought about it. But none of that matters to the Mexican athlete from Cuauhtémoc (Chihuahua), with a huge smile and already converted, as if by magic, into world runner-up with a new personal best of 2.30m in the high jump.

The success of this 25-year-old athlete, in reality, has no magic and a lot of stubbornness. Erick’s mother, Janette Rodríguez, still keeps some interviews in which the boy played to answer that he was a great athlete and that he traveled through Tokyo, London and all over the world.

“They always supported me,” he remembers in Torun. Although the beginning of this extraordinary life begins with a boy who caught the attention of a teacher who saw him jump and grab the branch of a tree.

He was then nine years old and when his coach arrived he made him try several tests because he didn’t excel in any of them. “In Secondary School, when I was 11 years old, I did everything and I wasn’t good at anything: 400m hurdles, long, triple, 800m… From 2011 to 2015 I didn’t compete in anything, but then I told my coach that I wanted to jump high. He told me he was going to give me a chance. If I jumped 1.50m, I would start training high. And I jumped. That summer I went to the National Under-16 Championship and from there I stopped. up…”

Portillo left home when he was 16 years old. He grabbed the suitcase and crossed the border to meet his brother in Albuquerque (New Mexico). “Later we moved to Tampa (Florida), but I didn’t like life there and decided to look for another coach. I found him in Querétaro. I moved when I was 17 and, since I had friction as a teenager with my parents, I was two or three months without a house to sleep in and I stayed at night in a warehouse, under the stands where I trained.”

That young athlete only had 100 pesos (about five euros) in his pocket. Portillo had to use his wits and with that money he bought some cookies that he then resold to increase his savings. When it reached 250 pesos, I went and bought milk and something to eat. “I didn’t have money or a place to sleep, but I didn’t miss a training session. That’s when I qualified for a South American U-20 tournament. I didn’t have many, but since I lived behind the stands, I got up and started training. In order for them to give me the key, I told the excuse that I wanted to get to the court early. Nobody knew I was staying. They found out about that later.”

Erick Portillo is now 25 years old and has a silver medal in a World Cup. Your most precious asset. The Mexican had a jump to become champion. That was after leading Ukrainian Oleh Doroshchuk smashed the bar over 2.33m for the third time. Portillo still had one left and with the public devoted to him and Simon Ehammer, the Swiss who was flying with his pole on his way to the heptathlon world record, with no races on the track, attempted his last feat. It was close, but the bar fell and Portillo, a polite guy who greeted, one by one, all the judges, smiled happily and satisfied.

Portillo, who made his fantasy of traveling around the world come true, an illusion that was never taken away from him by his parents, Ramón and Janette, thus achieved the best result in history for a Mexican in the indoor World Championships. His country, until now, had only achieved two bronze medals: (Indianápolis, 1987) and Alejandro Cárdenas in 400m (Maebashi, 1999). “I didn’t know. This makes me very happy, but I’m not going to stop training until I become an Olympic champion and a world champion. Today I was very close and we are going to continue. Right now there are three Mexicans in high jump: Edgar Rivera (national record holder with 2.31m), my brother Jair (he has a mark of 2.27m) and me. We are among the best and we want to show that Mexicans are badass.”