As Mexican diver Juan Celaya-Hernandez stood on the Olympic podium in Paris, he experienced two things. One, he realized the silver medal felt really heavy. Two, he began to have flashbacks of moments throughout the journey to his second Olympics — a journey filled with ups, downs, dark moments and, ultimately, triumph.
Celaya-Hernandez's journey began with his mother, Liliana Hernandez, instilling discipline in him and his sister, Ana, from a young age.
"People tell my mom that she didn't have kids; she had two little soldiers," he said.
A large part of this discipline started in the classroom. Celaya-Hernandez remembered failing a Spanish exam in grade school. When Liliana found out, she made him do extra readings and exercises after school until he improved. His biggest punishment was he could not practice until he had all A's. That was the last time he ever had a bad grade.
Celaya-Hernandez played football, soccer and swimming growing up in San Nicolas de los Garza, Mexico. When he was 7 years old, he saw people diving from the 10-meter diving board at his local pool. He stopped all other sports and began diving. Ana had started diving a couple of months before him, and the two quickly fell in love with the sport.
Celaya-Hernandez's mother, Liliana, made many sacrifices so he could dive. "She just kept going and going to make our dream come true."
"I got addicted to the adrenaline of it," he said.
Liliana and his father, Juan Celaya, made sure Juan and Ana found a way to dive. The parents would stay up late and get up early to make sure their children could follow their dreams. They made sure Juan and Ana always had dinner, even if they did not.
When he was 13, his parents got a divorce. His father still supported the family, but he was not present the majority of the time.
"I had to mature a lot during that time. How to be there for my mom, be there for my sister. How to figure out how everything worked," he said.
"My mom never gave up on us. She never said, 'You're not diving any more. I can't work and take you guys to practice or give you money to go to competitions.' She never said anything. She just kept going and going to make our dream come true."
At 16 years old, a close friend convinced Celaya-Hernandez to consider moving to the United States to dive and receive an education. He began studying for the SAT and sending emails to college coaches. LSU responded, and after visiting Baton Rouge, he made the decision to leave Mexico and dive in the United States. It didn't hurt that committing to LSU meant repping his favorite color, purple, and favorite animal, a tiger.
When he arrived on campus his freshman year, Celaya-Hernandez did not speak English. He took his civil engineering classes in a language foreign to him. He spoke to his teammates through Google translate. His diving coaches devised hand signals to communicate diving commands to him.
Instead of making excuses, he remembered his mother's rule: You must perform at school to be able to go practice. So, despite the challenge, he earned Southeastern Conference Freshman Diver of the Year and learned to speak English fluently by the end of his first year.
The diver continued to find immense success at LSU. He broke two Southeastern Conference records, became a seven-time SEC champion and earned 12 All-America honors while earning a degree in civil engineering. His sister, Ana, followed his footsteps and dove at Tennessee. She is currently an assistant diving coach and graduate student at TCU.
Celaya-Hernandez said much of his success came from his mother's values he brought from Mexico to Baton Rouge.
"I would say (I brought) the family environment, but it was already there. So I say not give up, keep going," he said. "I took the discipline we had in our family to LSU."
Off the diving board, he found a lifelong community.
"I found another family at LSU. People were very friendly, really proud of being a Baton Rouge native. It felt, in a way, like Mexico, which felt like home," he said.
"From not knowing anything (about U.S. colleges) to wanting to go back as much as I can, that's very big," he said. "It really marked my life, and it's the best decision I've ever made."
His senior year at LSU, Celaya-Hernandez competed in the Tokyo Olympics, where he placed fourth in the 3-meter synchronized diving event. After graduating from LSU, Celaya-Hernandez began his professional career to prepare for the next Olympic cycle.
Yet the process became anything but smooth. He had three different coaches in three years. The Mexican Swimming Federation did not financially support the divers, so Celaya-Hernandez could not compete for a year and a half. Then, with a couple of months until the Olympics, he still didn't know if they would find the financial aid to go to the events.
In this stressful and uncertain time, he thought about his Mexican heritage.
"(Mexican heritage is) perseverance. When everything might go south, there is still hope. It doesn't end until it ends. Until the last dive, the last stroke, until the bell rings," he said.
Celaya-Hernandez said he is grateful to his LSU coach Doug Shaffer (left) for the support that helped him succeed in college and the Olympics.
He changed his mindset to committing fully to making it to Paris, despite the odds.
"If there was still one shot, there was still hope for me to make the team. I just put my head down, started working. I just kept going. I was getting to the pool early, leaving the pool late," he said. "I changed my mindset from I knew everything and I wasn't learning anything anymore to trying to forget everything I knew and learn again."
After months of training under uncertainty, he received a call that he had a week to prepare for the World Aquatics Diving World Cup in China. If he performed successfully, he could have the opportunity to pair with Osmar Olvera and compete for Mexico in the Olympics.
Celaya-Hernandez medaled in China and was awarded a spot on the Olympic team in June.
In August, he earned a silver medal in the 3-meter synchronized diving with Olvera.
He texted LSU head diving coach Doug Shaffer. He asked Shaffer how it felt to coach an Olympic medalist. The coach sent back a thumbs up. "He's a man of not many words," Celaya-Hernandez said. He plans to head back to Baton Rouge in November to show the coach "the medal he also deserves."
When Celaya-Hernandez stood on the podium with the heavy silver medal around his neck, he thought of the journey. The ups and downs, the dark moments and the triumphs. But he also thought of the sacrifices that led to this moment.
"I always say that I'm not Mexican, I'm a warrior," he said. "I'm a fighter, I don't give up. Even when everything is against (me), I keep going."
Right after the ceremony, he called Liliana, showing her the silver medal. "We made it," he said as they both cried.
To Celaya-Hernandez, his Mexican heritage means perseverance in the name of hope, the values his mother embodied and taught him since his childhood.
"I held onto my dream," he said. "Follow your dreams. You'll never know how far they'll take you until you find out."
