Orozco’s choice: Eenie meenie minie mo, NCAA or going Pro?
Almost a year long period of deliberation has resulted in the American gymnast, John Orozco’s decision to go pro.
The 2012 Olympic hopeful’s twitter updates were peppered with statements regarding the amateur vs pro dilemma all of the past year.
During Orozco’s state of indecisiveness, some were of the opinion that he should opt for NCAA eligibility over going pro.
The gymnast did not receive that level of neutrality from supporters and observers, which was extended towards recently turned pro Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber.
The reason behind this was fairly simple. Men and women have differently timed peaks – while women hit theirs in mid late-teen years, men usually reach theirs in early mid-twenties.
So for Orozco, the Olympic clock was not ticking quite so ominously as for his female counterparts. At the next Summer Olympic Games in 2016 the athlete will be 23 years of age, which can be foreseen as his peak time.
Knowing that, Orozco could have had the best of both worlds in due time. He could have had the 100,000 dollars’ worth of college education on scholarship and made his mark in collegiate level gymnastics.
Later on, he could have reaped the perks of commercial viability too, since his career does have the capacity of longevity.
However, it seems that the most powerful motivator in the world has caught our gymnast by the reins as Orozco has chosen to give up his NCAA eligibility.
Already Orozco is somewhat a rarity since he comes from the Bronx, New York. He is the first male gymnast from this origin since Dominic Minicucci, Jr. who was part of the U.S. Olympic team in 1988 and 1992.
His journey to where he is today as a gymnast was a test of mental strength, given the kind of peer pressure he faced for his choices.
“It was hard, because, you know, I would get flak from all the other guys, the ones in high school who were playing other sports, basketball especially,” he said.
To face such pressure at a young and impressionable age, and to emerge on the other side as successfully as Orozco did, makes him an exemplary gymnast.
The gymnast has had 14 titles to his claim as part of the U.S. Junior National team.
He was the Junior National Champion for three consecutive years in the all-around, on the parallel bars and horizontal bar.
In these three years (2007 – 2009), there was not a single apparatus that he did not claim the Junior Champion title for.
This year, he won a silver medal at the National Championships on the parallel bars and a bronze each in the all-around, on the pommel horse and on the horizontal bar.
But his prime achievement for the year is the bronze he attained at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo as part of the U.S. men’s team.
Personally, I would have liked Orozco to have followed the idealist school of thought and maintain an amateur status.
It is true that gymnastics is an expensive sport to train for and the athletes can always use a bit of extra money to carry out their participation at and training for various events.
Then there is the added glitz of becoming a celebrity endorser and making appearances on the television et cetera.
It is also true that fellow pro, Paul Hamm, has not had the greatest luck minting his pro status. But that could also be because of his tainted profile due to an assault case.
In a way, Orozco would still have made money, had he gone for NCAA eligibility, except that the money would have been disposed pre-determinedly towards his education. Or one can call it saving on a future expense.
I believe Orozco possessed the easy potential for turning himself into the uncommon combination of star NCAA athlete turned successful pro.
Either way, now that the cards have been picked, I only wish Orozco the very best in his endeavours and hope that the pressure of becoming a professional does not bog him down any time in the future.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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