TEMPE, Ariz. - A former Olympian turned educator can be found in the classroom every day of the week. He inspires both students and athletes, maybe even leading one of them to the Olympic stage someday, just like himself.
More than 30 years after Jim Martinez took the bronze medal for wrestling in the 1984 Olympics, he remembers it like it was yesterday.
“It was just overwhelming to know that I had done something so important in such a short window of time,” Martinez said.
At the end of college, Martinez’s wrestling club pulled him into the Greco-Roman style of the sport. That’s where athletes use their upper body and chest-to-chest contact when competing.
"It kind of opened my eyes that this was even a possibility,” Martinez said.
This weekend, he’ll cheer on his Rio favorites from home in Arizona. Outside of the Olympic Games, Martinez is a substitute teacher at Corona del Sol and the head coach of the Aztec wrestling team.
He hopes someday, he will see one of his wrestlers competing for Olympic gold.
“It would just be incredible, honorable," he said. "It would be one of the highlights of my life.”
Martinez was also inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.