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A Modern Twist on the American Dream: How Karlos Balderas Became an Olympian

Related Topics: Olympic Games, United States

Karlos Balderas proudly tells his story, a great American story, a story you're sure to see on prime-time TV during the Olympic Games.

He starts with his grandfather, David, coming to the United States from Mexico, looking for a better life. In Mexico, their family had searched dumpsters for food. Their home had been a shed with a cardboard roof. They would put oil or grease onto the roof at night so that if it rained, the water would roll off it. Dreams were made in the United States, so David "went straight to the strawberry fields in California to look for a job, because that was pretty much the only thing he was able to do," Karlos says.