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 Paul Gonzales
Raised by a single parent as one of eight children in one of the roughest East Los Angeles neighborhoods, Paul Gonzales quickly learned the skills needed to survive on the streets where drugs, gangs, and murders are commonplace.
Paul is the first ever Mexican-American Olympic champion and, in spite of being a part of an outstanding 1984 Olympic boxing team that included Tyrell Biggs, Mark Breland, Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker, and Henry Tillman, it was Gonzales, the light flyweight champion, who earned the tournament's highest honor: the Val Barker Cup, which signifies the most outstanding boxer of the Olympic Games.
Paul has addressed crowds in excess of 10,000, serving as a Master of Ceremonies, motivational, keynote, or dinner speaker, and continues to devote his time to helping inner-city youth. He has appeared on behalf of the United Way, Boy Scouts of America, D.A.R.E. America and the Inner City Games. He was appointed Commissioner of Children, Youth and Families by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.
After his gold medal victory, he gave his medal to his mother, Anita. Paul Gonzales lives just fifteen miles from the housing project where he was raised.
Excerpted from Awaken the Olympian Within: Stories from America's Greatest Olympic Motivators, Edited by John Naber
© 1999 by Griffin Publishing Group
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Awaken the Olympian Within
Stories from America's Greatest Olympic Motivators
Paperback $19.95
© 1999, Griffin Publishing; ISBN: 1882180984
288 pages
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