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<\/p>\nOur society has constantly pressured us to fit in a mold. It seems like there is a universal mindset on what someone should look like and should be \u2013 like how we were illusioned to have a specific standard of beauty or ideal occupation based on gender.<\/p>\n
Little by little, people stepped up to break the norm. While some people still force their age-old stereotypes on us, we see heroes in those who say no to them; Women who are engineers, astronauts, and race car drivers. Models of different races, ethnicity, shape, and size.<\/p>\n
This teenager went viral because he showed people he could beat those stereotypes. Zeke Sanchez is determined and passionate \u2013 something he needed from his chosen sport.<\/p>\n
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SOURCE:YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT – ABC 15 ARIZONA<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t fit the mold, might as well break it! That\u2019s what Zeke Sanchez did to most people\u2019s expectations for those who participate in his sport \u2013 diving.<\/p>\n
What is our image of a diver? Someone toned with all the abs and muscles, perhaps? The \u201cBaywatch body,\u201d as they call it. But Zeke doesn\u2019t have that body and proved to people that that\u2019s not the only image of a diver. He is living proof of that.<\/p>\n
Zeke posted a video of his dive attempt on his Instagram page way back in 2018, and it garnered more than 180,000 views. This was picked up by a sports page before, but Zeke wasn\u2019t tagged. He thought it\u2019d be cool to get noticed again, so he worked on it.<\/p>\n
This year SportsCenter, Barstool Sports, and ESPN took notice of his diving skills, and people started talking abuzz about this boy who could dive! SportsCenter reposted one of his videos, which has been viewed more than 3 million times!<\/p>\n
If there was a champion for body positivity, it\u2019s Zeke. He proved to the world that he could participate in sports, especially diving, where people would expect such toned and muscular bodies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve never really seen a kid like my size able to do something like that before. But I think that if you really want to try and do something, if you put your mind to it, that you could do it,\u201d he told ABC 15 Arizona on why people connected with his video so much.<\/p>\n
Even his coach praised him not because he broke the stigma of body standards in his sport but because he had something every sporting coach would look for.<\/p>\n
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SOURCE:YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT – ABC 15 ARIZONA<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not out here trying to do flips. He\u2019s out here listening to his corrections and making sure he has the right form, and he\u2019s, you know, listening to the stuff that I give him,\u201d East Valley Dive Club Head Coach Lauren Thiel said about Zeke.<\/p>\n
She added that in their sport, what\u2019s important is the dedication and attention to details \u2013 something Zeke has constantly improved. His talent and dedication inspired many, including his coach, teammates, and kids his size and age who might feel like they have no place in sports.<\/p>\n