#FreestyleFriday: Echemendia defects from Cuba to chase American Dream

Nearly 18 months ago, Cuban native Anthony Echemendia, left his team and his family behind to start his journey to the United States in search of a better life with endless opportunities.

While at a training camp with the Cuban Junior Pan American team in Guatemala last summer, then-18-year-old Echemendia made the risky decision to defect from Cuba, sneaking away from his teammates and coaches to cross the Guatemala, Belize and Mexico borders to reach the United States.

“There are a lot of reasons that I left,” Echemendia said. “For example, it’s a hard situation in Cuba, but there are a lot of opportunities in the USA, so that’s why I came here. My journey was pretty hard. I passed through the Guatemala border, the Belize border, then the Mexico border to the USA by myself. I spent three months in [a detention center]. It’s the process. Everyone has to do it if you want to get into the USA. When I got to the border, I was asking for political asylum. I have some friends that are like my family, and they were helping me a lot and gave me money to pass through the borders to be able to get into this country, and I appreciate it a lot.”

Echemendia, who turned 19 while in the border detention center, eventually ended up in Tucson, Ariz., at Sunnyside High School with the support of Fernando Villaescusa, father of rising women’s freestyle talent Areana Villaescusa.

“One of my coaches from Cuba knows Fernando Villaescusa,” Echemendia said. “He’s from Mexico and speaks Spanish, but he’s a U.S. citizen. My coach talked to him and asked if he could help me. Fernando opened his doors to me and he’s been helping me a lot. I didn’t know any English when I got to the U.S. and he taught me so much. I’m very thankful for him and his family.”

He has since jumped levels in learning English, doing his entire interview with USA Wrestling in his second language.

That’s not the only thing he caught onto quickly. Echemendia was introduced to folkstyle shortly after coming to the USA.

“I didn’t know anything about folkstyle when I came to the U.S.,” he said. “When I got out of [the detention center], I came to Colorado for a few days. I wrestled and lost one match. I was so tired, and I couldn’t breathe. It was crazy. But after, I wrestled it a lot in Arizona at tournaments and the State Tournament.”

While wrestling at Sunnyside, Echemendia went 22-0, winning the Arizona state title at 152 pounds. He continued to turn heads, winning freestyle and Greco-Roman titles at 145 pounds at the USMC 16U and Junior Nationals in Fargo, N.D.

He has since been flooded with offers from several universities, and Echemendia decided to trade in his gut wrenches for riding time in order to create a better life for himself outside of wrestling.

“I decided to wrestle folkstyle because if you want to get into college, you have to wrestle folkstyle because that’s what every college does,” he said. “It opens a lot of doors because you aren’t going to wrestle for your whole life. I realized that I wanted to get an education and I wanted to wrestle, too, but I have to learn folkstyle. I thought about it. I have been wrestling freestyle all my life. I’m not going to lose my style. Going to college opens a lot of doors. If you want to be somebody in the future, you have to do it.”

He originally committed to Iowa State but decided to take a few official visits, which included stops in Iowa City, Iowa, Tempe, Ariz., and Columbus, Ohio.

On Wednesday, Echemendia announced that he would pursue his collegiate career at Ohio State, one of the current NCAA powers.

“I chose Ohio State because they are honest people,” he said. “They showed interest in me. It’s not all about good facilities or a good wrestling room. They have to show you that you are important. There were a lot of colleges that showed interest in me, but I liked Ohio State the best.”

Echemendia, who is expected to wrestle at 141 pounds, said he plans to move to Columbus in mid-December. Ohio State head coach Tom Ryan also tweeted on Wednesday that Echemendia will enroll in classes in January.

In the meantime, Echemendia is living and training at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado with National Freestyle Development Coach Kevin Jackson and his Elite Accelerated Program (EAP) athletes.

Eventually, Echemendia hopes to become a U.S. citizen and represent the United States at the World Championships.

It is uncertain when he will be granted citizenship, but Echemendia has applied for the Cuban Adjustment Act, or CAA, which allows any Cuban who has arrived in the U.S. legally to apply for permanent residency after a year and one day in the country.

His development as an international wrestler, and his quest for U.S. citizenship will be played out in front of the wrestling community in the months and years to come.