Long Island wrestling phenom overcomes odds after surviving horrific chimpanzee attack
Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez been grappling with life since he was 6 years old, but he would not let life's challenges pin him down.
A local high school wrestling phenom just won a national championship and is heading to college on a scholarship, but that's a far cry from how his life started off thousands of miles away, where he endured a life-changing attack that's hard to fathom. Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez has always had guts and grit, so it's no surprise how well he took to wrestling. He's been grappling with life since he was 6 years old, but he would not let life's challenges pin him down.
"I don't think I would have ever thought I'd be here, coming from my country and ending up being a good wrestler," Sibomana-Rodriguez said. He was just a little boy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, when a swarm of chimpanzees attacked, killing Sibomana-Rodriguez's cousin, injuring his brother and leaving him with no easy life, trying to fit in. But then Sibomana-Rodriguez found wrestling.
"Once I started getting better at it, people started accepting me and I accepted them," he said. Sibomana-Rodriguez came to the United States for reconstructive surgeries. He had never wrestled a day in his life.
Five Nassau County titles, three state championships and a national title later; the 18-year-old has committed to the University of North Carolina. As for how he got his start, he was taken in by a wrestling coach at Long Beach who would adopt him when he was in middle school. "It meant everything because without him pushing me so hard I wouldn't be where I am today," Sibomana-Rodriguez said.