00:00Of all the stories that came out of the Central American Games, you should know the one about one of the fastest men.
00:07of the world.
00:07He's Colombian, from Izmina, in Chocó, he runs 100 meters in almost 9 seconds and he just gave Colombia
00:14the title in the most important athletics event.
00:17I'm not going to tell you he's the next Saint Bolt, he's Ronald Longa, a boy who had to quit
00:22his homeland after losing one of the most important people in his life
00:26and who ended up running faster than any South American in history.
00:31The 100 meters is not just any race; it is the ultimate speed competition, a race that lasts less
00:3710 seconds and that can turn an athlete into a universal figure.
00:42In athletics, winning the Olympic 100 meters is somewhat similar to winning a World Cup final in football.
00:49Everyone understands what it means to be the fastest man on the planet.
00:53That's why, for example, the legend of Usain Bolt became gigantic.
00:57The Jamaican won 3 consecutive Olympic titles in the 100 meters, between Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.
01:06At the World Championships in Berlin in 2009, he covered the distance in 9.58 seconds, setting a record that 17
01:13Years later it remains intact.
01:15Longa, precisely, grew up while the world watched lightning run.
01:19His main role model, however, was another Jamaican, Asafa Powell, former world record holder and one of the greats
01:26sprinters of his generation.
01:27One day, Ronald also wanted to be there, on an Olympic track, facing the fastest men on the planet.
01:34But before he learned to race against the clock, he had to learn to race against pain.
01:39Ronald grew up in Itzmina, playing with his grandmother Carmen.
01:42She was one of the key figures in his childhood.
01:45While he still dreamed of being a footballer and played as a midfielder, his life was there, in Chocó, with his family.
01:52and with the woman who had raised him.
01:54But in 2012, Carmen died.
01:56Ronald was only 8 years old and that loss turned the places of his childhood into memories that were too painful.
02:04For months, he avoided returning to the house where he had lived with her.
02:08But when he finally returned, the memories became unbearable.
02:12And that, some time later, forced him to leave Chocó, his grandfather, and the days of working in the fields since
02:184 in the morning.
02:19The land where he lost the first great love of his life.
02:23In Bogotá, while still a child, he started over with his family.
02:27It was far from his first home where the athlete began to appear.
02:30Football was left behind; athletics began to take over.
02:34Little by little, that boy from Chocó discovered that he had something exceptional in his legs.
02:39One number then appeared as an impossible boundary when it all began: 10 seconds.
02:45No Colombian had ever officially run the 100 meters below that barrier.
02:50until Ronald did it in 2023, the day that changed history.
02:54He stopped the clock at 9.99 seconds during the South American Championship.
02:59And he became the first Colombian in history to enter the small universe of men capable of running
03:06the 100 meters in less than 10 seconds.
03:09That record also opened the doors for him to the World Championships in Budapest and the Olympic Games in Paris.
03:15He had achieved the dream that was born when he was still a child and played with Carmen in Izmina.
03:20But reaching the Games didn't mean conquering the world.
03:24Paris 2024 was a difficult experience; an injury affected his preparation, and that sprinter was the one on whom criticism was beginning to fall.
03:32huge expectations meant he couldn't show everything he had inside.
03:36The 10-second barrier, which had initially meant freedom, had also placed the weight of
03:43to prove that it had not been a coincidence.
03:46Then it was time to start again, processes changed, he continued competing, he learned to live with the pressure and began to show that
03:54Going below 10 seconds could cease to be an isolated feat and become a habit.
04:01In May 2026 he did it again, 9.98 in Sabona, ahead even of the Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020,
04:08Marcel Jacobs.
04:09But the day that would definitively change its dimension was yet to come.
04:13On June 26, 2026, in Medellín, Ronald Longa adjusted his starting blocks and ran the 100 meters.
04:20meters and when he looked at the stopwatch he found a number that no South American had ever seen next to his name.
04:269.85 seconds.
04:28Colombian record, South American record and the third best mark in the world at this point in the season.
04:34He is the third fastest man on the planet in 2026.
04:38For almost four decades, names like Robson de Silva, Felipe Vardy, and Eric Cardoso had pushed the limits hundredth by hundredth.
04:47of South American speed.
04:48Now the record belongs to a Colombian, Ronald Longa, who a month later won the Central American gold.
04:55The same boy who once had to leave because staying at home meant remembering too much.
05:02The same one who dreamed of football, who grew up admiring Asafa Powell.
05:07Today he is 22 years old and World Athletics ranks him among the best sprinters on the planet.
05:13His personal record has already secured him qualification for the 2027 World Championships and the Pan American Games in Lima.
05:20And that is why Colombia can begin to allow itself a dream that until very recently seemed excessive.
05:27Los Angeles 2028, an Olympic final, why not a medal?
05:31There are still two years to go, there are still faster men, there's still a huge gap between running 9.85 and becoming
05:39Olympic champion.
05:40But Ronald Longa has already done something that seemed impossible: he left the Chocó fleeing from his own memories.
05:46And he ended up becoming a man capable of beating time, one of the fastest on the planet.
05:51And it's ours, it's Colombian.
06:01Thank you!
