World Athletics Championships 2023: Meet Luis Grijalva, the 'Dreamer' chasing history for Guatemala despite his state of limbo
The DACA recipient Guatemalan, currently ranked ninth in the world in the 5000m still needs permission to compete overseas. Find out about his incredible journey as he shares with us his dreams for the future.
Athletics
Luis Grijalva is not your typical track and field athlete.
He loves running but he is restricted to pursuing his passion only within the borders of what has been his home for the last 23 years.
The U.S.-based Guatemalan runner needs special permission whenever he wants to compete outside the country.
Grijalva is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a U.S. policy that protects over 600,000 people who relocated to the country as children of undocumented immigrants.
DACA and the Dream Act, commonly referred to as 'Dreamers', are not allowed to return to the U.S. if they travel abroad and face-up to a 10-year ban if they violate this policy.
And less than three years after turning professional, the Tokyo 2020 Olympian is back running in his third major championship race, living a dream beyond his imagination.
“It's amazing because I feel like I get to inspire the over 500,000 dreamers by competing at the biggest stage for athletics," he says in an interview with Olympics.com in Budapest.
“And I get to represent a country that doesn't have too much representation on the global stage in athletics.”
The South American is competing at the 2023 World Athletics Championships starting with the 5000 heats on 24 Thursday with the final being scheduled on the last day of the event on 27 August.
How Luis Grijalva discovered his passion for running
“All my life, all I have known is the United States. Even though my roots started in Guatemala, I feel as American as anybody else who was born here."
That was the desperate plea Grijalva posted in July 2021 as he stepped up the fight to represent Guatemala a few days before his first race at the Tokyo Olympics. The 23-year-old was seeking conditional release from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, that would allow him to leave and re-enter the country safely.
He'd just turned pro, the culmination of a sporting journey that has been an escape from his eventful life.
Grijalva’s family moved to the U.S. from Guatemala in 2000, when he was only a year old, seeking a better life. When he was 13, his mother and two brothers returned home, while he remained in Fairfield, California.
“I really liked running from the start,” explains Grijalva.
“It was something that I felt like I was really good at from the start. And with running, it is easy to start, all you really need is a pair of running shoes and shorts.”
Running had given him a bearing at a difficult point in his life.
“It was one of those things that kind of just developed in me. No one in my family ran…my father worked on a farm, and my mother was a volleyball player.”
His obsession earned him a scholarship at Northern Arizona University, the beginning of a "big journey" as a distance runner.
Luis Grijalva on realising the Olympic dream
The 24-year-old didn’t just exploit the opportunity to study; he also decided to fully dedicate himself to running.
His natural talent and hard work paid off, winning numerous college races and championships.
Grijalva hugely benefited from the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics and used the extra 12 months to train and improve his times.
He lowered his personal best to 13:13.14, well within the Games qualifying time of 13 minutes, 13.30 seconds.
Grijalva still remembers the joy of qualifying, though the joyous moment that also marked the beginning of another arduous fight.
“My situation is kind of crazy," he explains.
" I can't leave the United States because I'm under this program called DACA. I'm not allowed to leave the country and need to apply for a special permit at least six months in advance.”
After a challenging legal push, he managed to get the exit permit needed for his trip to Tokyo.
“It was the first time I was ever leaving the country outside Guatemala and leaving the United States. I just got to be very fortunate enough to go to the Olympics in the first place,” he recalls, acutely aware of how lucky he was to have been granted permission to travel.
“Even though I only went to Tokyo, I felt like I visited the world in some ways because, walking around the Olympic village, I got to meet so many different athletes from different sports from different countries.”
Finishing 12th in his first Olympic final - won by Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei - remains a career high, but his best moment, he feels, is yet to come.
Luis Grijalva's career high at the 2022 World Championships
A strong qualifying 5000m round at the 2022 World Championships set him up for his best race ever. Competing at both the Oslo and Stockholm Diamond Leagues where he raced with the big stars helped him develop "incredible confidence".
Grijalva, who works with Northern Arizona University coach Mike Smith in Flagstaff, Arizona, finished fourth just missing out on a medal
“I wasn’t having the best of races leading up to the championships, so that fourth place for me was insane, and it was so unbelievable.
"I was just two tenths off from winning a medal, which would have been historical for my country and South America,” he tells Olympics.com of the race won by Jakob Ingebrigtsen, where he finished ahead of other long-distance greats, including Olympic champs Cheptegei and Selemon Barega.
“I had people walking up to me after that messaging saying, ‘You're a big inspiration for me and immigrants!’
“And for me, that really inspires me because, for so long, I didn’t think my running would take me this far. It has brought me so many opportunities.”
Luis Grijalva of Guatemala congratulates Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway react after competing in the Men's 5000m final at the 2022 World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field on July 24, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon.
Guatemala’s best distance runner currently ranks ninth fastest in the world with his 12:52.97 from June, that’s nearly a minute faster than the country’s next best runner.
"In a matter of two years, I have changed a lot as a person and as a runner. I am two completely different runners in so many ways,” he says.
“And coming here, this is the kind of meet that sets you up for the Olympics… I'm pretty excited that it's coming up next year because I want to revisit those memories as well. If I can perform here, it will give me more confidence going into next year.”
Grijalva is thrilled about his sporting journey, and more so what it means for a country he has never set foot on.
“In America, there's over 500,000 dreamers and I get to represent them and compete at the biggest stage. It's a privilege to be running at this level, and it's an honour because I get to live the dream.” - Luis Grijalva to Olympics.com
“I also want to set an example of what the other 14 million Guatemalans can do also because I know I'm not the only one.
“I know there's a few Guatemalans that can compete at this level, and they just have to believe and have that trust in them because if I'm doing it, I know for sure if they're doing it, they can do it too.