YESTERDAY afternoon, at the Rotary Club of Guam’s weekly luncheon meeting held at the Guam Marriott Resort and Spa in Tumon, members were treated to a talk by two-time Guam Olympian Ricardo “RJ” Blas.
During the 2012 London Olympics, which concluded only a week ago, Guam’s "Little Mountain" became the first Guamanian in Olympic history to win a round, meet or event during the Olympic Games. Blas competed in the 100-plus kilogram division in the Judo event.
Comparing his two Olympic participations (Beijing and London), Blas said London was better. “Everyone spoke English. It was a lot easier to get around. I didn’t spend a lot of time in the Olympic Village after my events. I spent a lot of time with the locals. I made a lot of friends. My Olympic experience this time around wasn’t so much with sport, but meeting the locals and getting to know everybody. I met a lot of really cool people.”
Superstars
Clearly a multi-sport fanatic, Blas told of some of the superstars he met. “I met a lot of other athletes. I traded pins with Venus Williams. She was cool. She actually came up to me and asked me for the Guam pin. I met Kobe, LeBron and all the USA (Men’s Basketball) team. They walked into the village and the first place they went to was McDonald’s. They didn’t look around or anything, they went straight to McDonald’s. I thought that was hilarious.”
Security
With a room filled with Rotarians who may have remembered past calamities such as the 1972 Munich Games massacre and later the 1996 Atlanta bombings, one asked about security. Blas responded: “Security during the Games and throughout the Village was tight. It took us so long to get in and out of the village. If I wanted to leave to go to the mall or some place, I would have to go through three checkpoints and then get scanned two different times. Security was great in the sense that you felt safe the whole time, except for when two days before the games, about 12 o’clock at night, we were all sleeping and started hearing explosions – I thought we were being attacked, but they were just testing the fireworks. They didn’t tell anybody that was going on. It was horrible.”
In describing his interview with CNN reporter Becky Anderson, thusly catapulting the giant Guamanian onto the world stage, “I was really nervous. We were on the eighth floor and they put me on a wooden balcony and I’m really afraid of heights. All I could think about was me falling off.”
Most memorable
When asked what was most memorable to him regarding the Games, Blas said: “I was the flag bearer in the closing ceremonies. It was the most amazing concert anyone could have ever put on. The best of the UK was there and then the best of Brazil was there – Victoria’s Secret models. It was cool.” Blas described the finale as “great, with surprise after surprise. You had The Who and the Spice Girls, every great artist that came out of the UK was only 10 feet away from you.”
Blas said he would like to return to the Olympics in 2016 (Brazil) in saying, “I really want to go. I definitely want to. It’s not a sure thing, I won’t say yes, but I definitely want to. We’ll see what happens.”
In order to get to Rio in 2016, Guam’s "Little Mountain" is going to have to remain in the top 22 in the world. “I tore a couple of ligaments in my left knee while training in Japan two years ago. I do need surgery on it for sure, but after that I have to keep in the top ranks.”
Blas closed his talk commenting about off-island training and funding: “I do a lot of my training in Japan and Korea. On Guam there are no training partners. There is funding from the IOC – they have grants,” he said, but “a lot of the funding comes out of my dad’s pocket.”
