Ramos reps UNC, Duke and his home of Puerto Rico in Olympic Games :: WRALSportsFan.com
Ethan Ramos is competing in wrestling for Puerto Rico at the Olympics. Ramos is a former University of North Carolina student-athlete and a current assistant coach for Duke University.
Ramos’ goal is to grow the sport of wrestling in Puerto Rico. He hopes to eventually move to Puerto Rico and start a club. In the meantime, he’s growing interest in the sport by representing Puerto Rico in the Olympics.
Ramos said, “I want to elevate the wrestling in Puerto Rico specifically. So, for now, being able to represent them I feel like that gives me more of a platform, specifically representing them in the Olympics, gives me a bigger platform to be able to reach more kids over there.”
Ramos was born and raised in New Jersey. His grandparents on both sides of his family moved to New Jersey from Puerto Rico in their early 20s. There was a significant Puerto Rican community in Patterson, New Jersey. This gave Ramos exposure to Puerto Rican culture. Ramos also went to visit Puerto Rico often when he was younger, but he stopped going while in high school. When he was at UNC, he began going back to Puerto Rico again to establish a relationship with the national team.
Ramos has long dreamed of being an Olympian. As a multi-sport high school athlete, he chose to focus on wrestling because he felt it was the best path for him to get here. Ramos always loved wrestling, so he’s happy with how it worked out.
Ramos’ ultimate goal is to win a gold medal at the Olympics. He said, “the goal has always been to be an Olympic champ. Making the Olympics has definitely been really exciting and more exciting than I expected, but still not fully there yet.”
Ramos recognized the higher level of competition at the Olympics, saying, “Of course it’ll be different just in the fact that I’ll have like a top eight guy in the world right away.” Nonetheless, Ramos is confident that his training has prepared him for this.
Ramos has been training hard. Even while coaching at Duke, Ramos has prioritized improving his skills and doing whatever it takes to get ready for the Olympics.
He said, “I think it’s just like any other match. I just got to take it one step at a time, not worry about the result, just worry about what I got to do to make sure that I’m in the best position to win. And then I’ll be all right.”
Competing in the 86 KG event, Ramos will take the stage at Champ-de-Mars Arena on Thursday.
Source: wralsportsfan.com