U.S.'s Cejudo wins gold in freestyle wrestling

BEIJING -- Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin are familiar faces by now, so seeing the gymnasts side-by-side on the medals stand Tuesday was nice, but nothing new.

For that, get to know another American gold-medal winner, freestyle wrestler Henry Cejudo.

The son of illegal immigrants from Mexico, Cejudo was 4 when he last saw his dad. His mom raised six kids and often struggled to make ends meet. The family moved more times than anyone remembers.

He got into wrestling as a youngster because his older brother Angel was good at it, good enough to get invited to live at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Only halfway through high school, Henry went with him.

The kid became a national champ at 17, then defied conventional wisdom by blowing off college to study nothing but wrestling. Yet last year, at the world championship -- his first senior-level international event -- he didn't win a single match.

Now he's the world's best in the 55-kilogram division, the youngest American ever to win an Olympic wrestling gold medal. That's saying something, because his was the 50th gold won by U.S. wrestlers; swimming and track and field are the only sports to produce more.

His story offers all manner of inspiration. The parts he hopes resonate most: Dream big, work hard and never give up.

"Anybody can do it," he said. "It's just a matter of seeing it, believing it and just working at it, and achieving it. ... The guy who went 0-1 (at the world championship) just won the Olympic title."