[As told by Pepe Reilly] I remember getting off of the plane in Barcelona for the 1992 Olympic Games and it was the first time that we had four Latino's on the U.S. Olympic team. It was myself, Oscar De La Hoya, Raul Marquez and Sergio Reyes. Sergio Reyes was my roommate and before the games, we would go down to the Olympic Village and walk around the city just to see what it looked like. I remember being so excited because I had never seen nothing like it before. It was the biggest thing I had ever experienced. I remember walking into the Olympic Village and seeing all of the news channels and the big broadcasters like NBC. It was way above my expectation. I remember walking around the city with De La Hoya, Reyes and Marquez and thinking, "Man, what is this?" I knew it was gonna be fun and exciting and we were prepared for it.
The thing I remember most is after the Games, me and Oscar De La Hoya was sitting in the airport on the way back after he had just won the Gold medal, and Raul Marquez and Sergio Reyes were both from Texas and myself and Oscar was coming back home to L.A. from Washington D.C. because from Barcelona, we flew in to Washington D.C. to meet the President, which was President Bush at the time. We were at the White House and we were a little bit tired from the Olympics and we had celebrated Oscar's Gold medal the night before we came back. So we spent the day at the White House and met the President and took pictures and we're coming back home, pretty much just me and Oscar because, like I said, Marquez and Reyes headed back to Texas and we were on our way back to California. And it was odd because out of all of the people that we saw, we were pretty much there for over a month in Spain and after all of that time of being around people and big crowds, it came down to myself and Oscar De La Hoya by ourselves. We are getting ready to come home to L.A. for the first time since we left. We were two young guys trying to make a name for ourselves and nobody really knew either of us.
By this point, De La Hoya had won the Gold medal and we didn't really know what to expect on the way home. I won my first fight in Barcelona and lost my second fight to a Russian. So we are sitting down at the terminal and someone looked at Oscar and I heard them say, "Whoa, he has a Gold medal on his neck." And I looked at Oscar and I say, "Oscar, you know you are gonna be famous now, right?" And he looked at me and he goes, "What?" And I repeated, "You're gonna be famous now. You won a Gold medal and that's a big thing. These people really love this kind of stuff and you're gonna be big and become a celebrity." He said, "Nah, it's not that big of a deal." And I remember telling him, "Watch man, you're gonna be rich and famous now. Life is about to be different. You're not gonna be the same person anymore." He was still like, "Nah, I don't think it's gonna be that big of a deal. I did it for my mom and it was just a dream come true." But he really didn't think that much of it. We both had been boxing since we were little kids. Since we were like 8 years old, all we ever did was train and fight, so we didn't know anything about receiving any kind of feedback from people that we know. So I told him, "Well, just be ready because when we get back, it's gonna be different. You are gonna be rich and famous."
So we both get on the plane and we both fall asleep and sure enough, we get home and we are both tired. It had been a long month. It had been a long journey. We both knew that when we got off of that plane, we would probably both turn pro and go our own ways. So as we are getting off of the plane, the stewardess says, "Wait a minute! You two guys stop here and let everybody else get off of the plane first." So we let everyone off and they were like, "Okay, you guys can go now." As we walked off of the plane to get into the airport to go home and see our families, we walk down the little hallway and get into the terminal at LAX and thousands of people are there and we were like, "Whoa!" And there was news cameras and reporters and all of the big name reporters and thousands of people there and I remember saying, "Whoa!" I looked over at Oscar and he got taken in by the wave of people and kind of got sucked into the wave of magic and he never came back from it. He became that celebrity that I was telling him he would be. And I couldn't be happier for him.
I started boxing when I was 8 and by the time we were 15, we started traveling, so being away from home wasn't out of the ordinary. We always traveled for training camps and going out of the country and in other states or at the Olympic Training Center, so it was kind of the norm. Once you get off of the plane, we all kind of was forced to be adults in a lot of ways because you start your career and you get married and have kids, so I never thought we would all be able to stay in touch with one another, but along the way, for myself and my Olympic teammates, and even Oscar De La Hoya, we run into each other here and there at events or fights. We don't really keep in touch so to speak because we all have families and whatnot, but we run into each other and are friends and that kind of thing, but it was great times back then. I actually saw Shane Mosley the other day at Wildcard Boxing Gym.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]