A true national hero

He could be a full-time swimmer for the British or Spanish Olympic team, but he always wanted to compete under the flag of Paraguay, a small South American country known as one of the least developed nations in world sport.

Although Paraguay, one of the first independent republics in the Western Hemisphere, does not have a group of 50 and despite its problems with training and sports equipment, Benjamin Hockin, whose father is British and mother Paraguayan, loves to compete with this landlocked nation. It is a rare case in the developing world where various athletes, from boxers and soccer players to fencers and archers, want to become US/European citizens. In the late 1990s, for example, African Eunice Barber, who is 1.91m tall, became a French athlete after competing as an athlete from the war-torn country of Sierra Leone at the Summer Games in 1996 Atlanta, where she finished fifth in the women’s heptathlon.

Guerrero – Athletes from Paraguay

Most of Paraguay’s victories have been produced by “warrior athletes”, an envy of many Olympic leaders in the region. In the second half of the 1980s, the country’s team, made up of three combative athletes — Víctor Manuel Pecci, Francis González and Hugo Chapacu — defeated América in the Davis Cup preliminaries, at a time under the dictatorship anti-communist Alfredo Strossner. Previously, in the early 1950s, the women’s basketball team won the Copa Sudamericana by defeating Brazil 20-19, and after that, they finished fifth in the World Tournament in the Chilean capital, Santiago. At home in 1962, this team won its second continental trophy well ahead of Chile (silver medal) and Brazil (third).

His other international medals came when the men’s volleyball team captured the silver medal at the 1958 South American Championships in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In the final, Paraguay lost to the host country (which was referred to as one of the “most outstanding teams” on the Planet between 1959 and 1966). By 1964, this Spanish-speaking republic was in second place in the Women’s South American Volleyball Cup. Fifteen years later, the men’s team won a bronze for their victory over a Chilean squad.

Following their victory in the 1992 Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the players qualified for the Summer Games. But in those years, tennis in the country emerged with two teenagers, Rossana de los Ríos and Larissa Schaever. It was during that time that Rossana won the Junior French Open. Later, Edgar Baumann was crowned the second best javelin thrower in the Western Hemisphere at the Pan American Games at the José María Minella Stadium in Mar del Plata. Apart from him, there were other outstanding athletes such as Nery Kennedy and Ramón Jiménez.

Over the following century, Paraguay, led by José Luis Chilavert and then Roque Santa Cruz, became one of the few countries in the world to qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the fourth time in a row and after winning a silver medal. in 2004. Games of Athens (behind Argentina). In the last world tournament in sub-Saharan Africa, the national team – whose players sometimes use the native Guarani language to confuse their rivals – made international headlines by winning their group with five points, ahead of Slovakia, New Zealand and Italy. . But Paraguay has not only produced top-level athletes like Chilavert, Pecci, González, Bauman and Kennedy, but also other idols like the swimmer Benjamín Hockin.

Goodwill Ambassador of Paraguay Benjamin Hockin

Benjamin Thomas Hockin Brusquetti was born on September 27, 1986 in the Colombian city of Barranquilla. After living in the Colombian Caribbean, where he learned to swim, he and his family moved to Paraguay, the country of his mother. In this sparsely populated nation, Benjamin, known as “Benji”, discovered his “great passion” for swimming, competing for local clubs including Deportivo Saxony. Taking a vacation in Tenerife (Spain), he made the decision to stay on Spanish soil, where his parents had been working. There he began a career as an amateur swimmer at the Teneteide Sports Club, while finishing his school years. When he turned 19, he left Spain for Great Britain to study English and seek new horizons. During his stay in Wales and England he attracted attention for his recordings, receiving an invitation to represent Great Britain. At that time he sent his pre-Olympic results to Paraguay, but his credentials were not accepted by the South American republic.

Becoming a British citizen, Benjamin made his international debut at the European Tournament in 2006. The following year, he traveled to Australia to participate in the FINA World Championships. Benjamin went on to earn Olympic berths in two events at the National Trials, earning the right to participate in the 2008 Games. Subsequently, he was one of the members of the British team that reached the final in the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay at the Games of the 29th Olympiad at the Beijing National Aquatic Center (nicknamed the “Water Cube”).

overcoming great obstacles

Although Great Britain will host the 2012 Summer Olympics, Benjamin, who is 6ft 5in (1.96cm), does not want to compete for the host country. Instead of Great Britain, where there are several swimming pools, his dream is to be an Olympian from Paraguay, the only South American country where there is not a single Olympic swimming pool.

Before being barred for a year from swimming by FINA due to an improper change of citizenship, he amassed eight medals (six silver) at the South American Championships in Medellin, Colombia, becoming the first swimmer from Paraguay to win a medal in continental events. since March 1976 when Emilio Abre finished third in the men’s 400-meter individual medley in the Uruguayan city of Maldonado, behind Brazilian Carlos A. Rocha and Pan-American champion Jorge Delgado Panchana of Ecuador.

The year 2011 turned out to be a special year for him. Why? At the recent Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico -the most important pre-Olympic event in the Western Hemisphere- Benjamin had one of his greatest satisfactions when he was deservedly named flag bearer for the Olympic team and then, on October 18, 2011, he gave his country his first individual Pan American medal by finishing third in the men’s 200m freestyle with a new South American record of 1:48:40, at the expense of Mathew Patton and Douglas Robison (both from the Americas). Two days earlier, he and his compatriots — Renato Prono, José Lobo and his brother Charles — had missed out on a Pan American bronze medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay.

Despite the obstacles, he never refused to train with his teammates, an Olympic spirit once possessed by the legendary Anthony Nesty, a Trinidadian-born Surinamese swimmer (who twice beat Matt Biondi in the late 1980s). ), and the great Claudia Poll from Costa Rica. On the contrary, he stepped up his efforts to improve his records. Unlike the swimmers from Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru, he did not have coaches and Olympic specialists (such as nutritionists) as well as sponsors. Every day, from morning to afternoon, he had systematically trained in the only 25-meter pool in Paraguay.

A few months before the London Olympics, Benjamin Hockin has become a role model for his humble personality, Olympic spirit and his passion for Paraguay. In a recent interview, Benjamín said: “For me, Paraguay is my country… It’s another pleasure (competing under the South American republic). I felt very proud to be Paraguayan. That’s why my declaration of love for the country.”

Through his passion, talent and discipline, he proves that great athletes are great athletes anywhere in the world, especially when he beat Americans and Brazilians at Guadalajara 2011. Good luck Benjamin for London 2012! You are already a winner!