The teenager is showing the world that size doesn’t matter in sports. Our society has constantly pushed us to fit into a mold. There seems to be a universal mindset about how someone should be and look, as if we’ve been misled to have a specific standard of beauty or ideal occupation based on gender. Slowly but surely, people have begun to break the norm.
While some still impose their ancestral stereotypes, we see heroes among those who say no to these stereotypes; women who are engineers, astronauts, and race car drivers. Models of different races, ethnicities, shapes, and sizes. This teenager went viral because he showed people he could break those stereotypes. Zeke Sánchez is determined and passionate, something he needed in his chosen sport. If you don’t fit the mold, it’s better to break it!
That’s what Zeke Sánchez did with most people’s expectations for those who practice his sport: diving. What’s our image of a diver? Someone with a toned body and all the abs and muscles, perhaps? The “Baywatch body,” as it’s called. But Zeke doesn’t have that body and he showed people that’s not the only image of a diver. He is living proof. Zeke posted a video of his jump attempt on his Instagram page in 2018, and it has garnered over 180,000 views.
This was picked up by a sports page previously, but Zeke was not identified. He thought it would be cool to be noticed again, so he worked on it. She added that in his sport, what matters is dedication and attention to detail, something Zeke has consistently improved upon. His talent and dedication have inspired many people, including his coach, teammates, and children his size and age who might feel excluded from the world of sports.