As a lad growing up in Cuba, Mario Delgado dreamed of being a superstar athlete. And the sports heroes he idolized the most were rowers.
“I wanted to be one of them because they were the biggest guys in town,” said Delgado, now 64. “But I never had the chance.”
Delgado was still a youngster when he came to the United States as part of a resettlement. He lived in various cities, but no matter where he called home, sports were always a key part of his routine.
“I have been competing since I was 4 years old,” he said. “Swimming was my first sport, but then I got into soccer and basketball. I fenced in college and qualified in 1986 for the Olympics biathlon. At the time, I was in the military, and I was used to running and had great shooting skills.”
Though he never captured any major medals, Delgado never stopped honing his athletic skills. In 1991, he began rowing while he was living in Miami, and almost immediately he began competing in marathons.
“For me, the opportunity to row was like unfinished business from childhood,” he said with a laugh.
When Delgado moved to the Gainesville area in 2002, he was astonished to find an Olympic rowing venue at Lake Lanier, practically in his backyard.
“Right away, I joined the rowing club,” said Delgado. “Distance is my game, so I started training for long sessions. And I did pretty well.”
But a 1980s injury to his hip began making most movement painful. Facing a hip replacement, Delgado was determined to finish what he thought would be his final rowing feat: going 30 miles from Clark’s Bridge to Brown’s Bridge.
“I didn’t know if I’d be able to row again, and I’d been training for that distance, so I took a single scull and went to the bridge and back in just under five hours,” he said.
The hip replacement was a success, and when the doctor gave Delgado the green light to get back on the water, he invented a new challenge. Three months ago, he enlisted the help of friend Gary Sickinger to make his most ambitious trip yet. The two pushed off at 7:30 in the morning and rowed from Clark's Bridge to Buford Dam -- a round-trip of 48 miles that took four hours and 15 minutes.
“It was hard, not because of the distance but because of the openness of the water,” said Delgado. “With the wind and big boats, the water really moves. But it was great to do it.”
Though he’s ticked off his biggest rowing goal, Delgado still gets out on the water three or four times a week and rows about 15 miles. His next challenge is to make the trip from Clark's Bridge to the dam on his own.
"That will be much harder because the whole effort is your's," he said. "But I'm training for it. Thankfully, I'm addicted to exercise."
"Milestones" covers significant events and times in the lives of metro Atlantans. Big or small, well-known or not -- tell us of a Milestone we should write about. Send information to hm_cauley@yahoo.com; call 404-514-6162; or mail to Milestones, c/o Jamila Robinson, 223 Perimeter Center Parkway N.E., Atlanta, GA 30346.
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