Kevin Mejía Explained
Kevin Mejía Castillo (born 1995) is a Honduran wrestler. He qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics and was named his country's co-flag bearer.
Biography
Mejía was born in 1995.[1] [2] He is the second of five children.[2] At age 13, he moved to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, from Triunfo de la Cruz, to train as a wrestler, following in the footsteps of one of his brothers.[2] He joined the High Performance Centre run by the Honduran Olympic Committee (Comité Olímpico Hondureño, COH) and by 2011 won a bronze medal in the cadet category at the World Junior Wrestling Championships in Hungary.[3] He won gold at the 2013 Central American Games and then won two bronze medals at the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games.[4] [5]
Mejía served as the flag bearer for Honduras at the 2015 Pan American Games.[6] There, he competed in the 98 kg Greco-Roman event and won the silver medal, becoming the first individual silver medalist for Honduras in the history of the Pan American Games, as well as the nation's only medalist at the 2015 games.[3] [4] Later that year, he competed at the World Junior Championships and won a bronze medal in the 96 kg category.[3]
Mejía joined the German club SC-Oberlsbach in 2016.[7] He won a silver medal at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games, won bronze at the 2019 Pan American Games, and bronze at the French Grand Prix in 2020.[8] [9] [10] He won the gold medal at the 2021 Pan American Wrestling Championships, becoming the first-ever Honduran to do so.[11] In 2023, he won bronze at the Pan American Games and was the only Honduran medalist.[12] He qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics by winning at the 2024 Pan American Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament, becoming the first Honduran to qualify.[5] He was the co-Honduran flag bearer at the opening Olympic ceremony.[13]
Notes and References
- Web site: Kevin Mejia Castillo. Olympics.com.
- Web site: Honduras espera grandes noticias de Kevin Mejía desde París. EFE. Yahoo!. Spanish. 15 December 2023. Honduras awaits great news from Kevin Mejía from Paris.
- News: Kevin Mejía volvió victorioso del Mundial Juvenil de Lucha. La Prensa. 18 August 2015. Kevin Mejía returned victorious from the Youth Wrestling World Cup. Spanish.
- Web site: Kevin Mejía: 'Dije que lo iba a hacer por mi país'. Diez.hn. Spanish. 20 July 2015. Kevin Mejía: 'I said I was going to do it for my country'.
- News: Kevin Mejía es el primer atleta hondureño clasificado a París 2024. El Heraldo. Spanish. 28 February 2024. Kevin Mejía is the first Honduran athlete to qualify for Paris 2024.
- News: Luchador Kevin Mejía será abanderado en Toronto 2015. Wrestler Kevin Mejia will be the flagbearer in Toronto 2015. Spanish . 3 July 2015 . .
- Web site: El luchador hondureño Kevin Mejía es contratado por un club de Alemania. Diez.hn. Honduran fighter Kevin Mejía is hired by a club in Germany. Spanish. 24 August 2016. Mayorga, Raxa.
- News: Kevin Mejía: «No soy el mejor atleta de Honduras». Kevin Mejía: "I am not the best athlete in Honduras". 4 August 2018. Diario Deportivo Más. Spanish.
- Web site: Kevin Mejía, medallista Panamericano: 'No era un niño de casa, era rebelde'. Diez.hn. Spanish. 8 August 2019. Kevin Mejía, Pan American medalist: 'He was not a child from home, he was a rebel'. Bustillo, Victor.
- Web site: Kevin Mejía le da bronce a Honduras en el Grand Prix de Francia. Diez.hn. Kevin Mejía gives Honduras bronze in the French Grand Prix. Spanish. 19 January 2020.
- Web site: Mejia Castillo Becomes Honduras' First Senior Pan-American Champ. United World Wrestling. 28 May 2021. Miller, Taylor.
- News: Kevin Mejía, el atleta hondureño más laureado. La Prensa. Kevin Mejía, the most successful Honduran athlete: "The Olympics are on my mind". Osorto, Marcel. 10 November 2023. Spanish.
- Web site: Paris 2024 Opening ceremony flagbearers information. 26 July 2024. International Olympic Committee.
