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OLYMPIC GOLD
A Conversation with Devin Vargas
By Annie Cieslukowski
 If you haven’t heard of Devin Vargas, you will soon.
The 22-year-old Toledoan will participate in this summer’s Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, as a heavyweight boxer.
The third of four siblings, Vargas says, “I started training when I was seven, because my dad took my brothers down to the gym first. And I had to come too. I wasn’t going to sit home with the women.”
Vargas recently sat down with toledo to talk about boxing, his dad, and Wheaties®, among other things.
toledo: What does commitment mean to you?
Vargas: It’s my way of life. You gotta be committed to everything you do. That’s the way I was brought up. My dad never let me quit any sport I was at. Total commitment, that’s what it was. And boxing just ended up being my best sport. I wanted to go to college for football, but he said, “You need to focus on boxing, because that’s going to be your moneymaker.” So I just quit football and went on with boxing. And I had schools talking to me, like Pittsburgh and the Army. The Army wouldn’t leave me alone!
toledo: What was your first step on the road to Athens?
Vargas: It was my dream, right away. It’s every kid’s dream — well, I don’t know if it’s every kid’s dream to be an Olympian, but to make it big in something. That was my dream when I was eight. And everyone started putting pressure on when I was 11, because I didn’t lose. When I started when I was eight, I didn’t lose any fights until I was 11, and it was because of an asthma attack. But I didn’t lose at all, and everyone was like, “Oh, you should keep going.” And I barely lost. A lot of my losses came to the same people. One guy, I lost, like, five times to him. But that guy, he was like 6’1” when I was 12. He was the same age! He’s Polish, and he’s real tall. He’s like 6’6” now.
toledo: What do you enjoy about boxing?
Vargas: Mostly, the traveling. Right now, I’m mostly traveling. I’ve been to Brazil. I’ve been to the Dominican Republic. I’ve been to Puerto Rico. I’ve been to Kazakhstan. It was nice, actually. The city we were in, Astana, I think it is, they had just made it the capital the year before. So they were rebuilding everything; they were starting to make skyscrapers. It was in the process of getting big. But it was nice; they loved us. They loved Americans. And I went to England and Denmark. Mexico, of course. Canada, of course. All those trips were paid for.
Kazakhstan was weird. The super heavyweight, he weighs, like, 250! And they put us in those little — you know those beds that look like cars for little kids? That’s what they looked like. We had two beds in there, touching each other, foot to foot. And the room was small. We both couldn’t be up at the same time. So I either had to be in the bed so he could walk, or he had to be in the bed and I could walk.
We get used to it, the boxers, from all these trips we go on.
 toledo: What is your training schedule like?
Vargas: Right before the Olympic trials, I was training about eight hours a day. I was waking up at six. I started working out with a personal trainer, doing balancing exercises, working on my legs, so I’d have better balance. ’Cause I’m kind of a klutz; I trip over my own feet all the time. (Laughs.) I’d do that for two hours, three hours. Then I’d come home just to get some breakfast. Then I was going to Detroit to spar. I’d be up there for two hours, come home for an hour or so, go to the gym from 5 to 7:30. So, I’d wake up and leave at six, and wouldn’t get home ‘til 7:30 or 8 at night. Once I got used to it, it was hard to go to sleep.
toledo: When you’re in the ring, during a match, how do you not get angry?
Vargas: The thing with me, I do get angry. It’s not really anger, but it’s more of, I’m a man. And you got to show them, you got to start slugging back. That’s what it is for me. I’ve got a lot of heart. That’s what everyone says. I’m more like a Rocky Balboa. That’s what my team refers to me as because I just get in there and go to war if I have to. I’ll take shots. I love taking four shots but giving six or seven back. ’Cause I’ll punch anyone if they want to sit in front of me and keep punching back and forth. Me and my dad watched tapes and stuff, and he said I’m getting hit too much, and that’ll make a short career. So I’m going to stop getting hit, and start boxing. (Laughs.) Looking good, staying outside. No more bangin’, no more wars for me. I’m getting too old for it.
toledo: Do you ever think about Muhammad Ali and how he got started? He really came to prominence after winning a gold medal.
Vargas: It’s already pretty much promised that I’ll have a career after this, but the gold medal’s going to bring a better career for me. I hope to get a gold medal. I think I will!
toledo: You’ve got good prospects.
Vargas: I’ve never been to a world tournament, and that’s where all the other countries tape. They’ve got tapes of everyone. They’ve got tapes of our whole Olympic team, except for me, because they’ve never seen me fight, because I’ve never been to a world [tournament]. They’re going to be surprised when they see me. Hopefully.
toledo: What or who inspires you?
Vargas: I guess my dad. He’s a hard worker. He wakes up early and goes to work 12 hours and comes home and goes right to the gym. So he works hard. Growing up, if I was playing football, he’d be on the sideline yelling if I’m not doing my best or if I’m not being tough enough. He’d be like, “Come on!” I wouldn’t want to come off the football field if I didn’t do good!
I guess it’s my dad. He works at Davis-Besse. And he does all this still, and he has lupus. Now he’s coming home beat, tired. So he can’t yell at me that much, so that’s good. He can’t yell at me. He always says he’ll whup me. If I ever wanted to fight him, he’d beat me up. If I ever think I’m big and bad, he’ll knock me down. My dad’s a big guy; I wouldn’t want to try.
toledo: Besides the prospect of winning a medal, what excites you about going to Athens?
 Vargas: Just everything that the games have. Everything associated with the games. The ceremonies, and being in the Olympic Village. I’ve heard from past Olympians that the village is cool, because all the USA people are in one section of the Olympic Village and everyone just hangs out. And I kind of got a taste of that in the Pan Am games this summer. They had a little “Olympic Village,” and they had all Americans in their apartments all in a square, and in the middle was like a little courtyard. And I met softball players; I met everyone. And it was cool, just hanging out with them. And I’ve heard the Olympics is going to be even more fun. And the opening ceremonies at the Pan Am Games, I was like “Wow!” It was a huge stadium, about the size of the Glass Bowl.
And this thing was packed. All the seats were sold out, all the aisles. People were standing in the aisles. It would’ve been a total fire hazard here, but there, they don’t care. When we came out, it was surprising to us. We thought we were going to get booed because they hate us. But everyone was just yelling. It was so loud. The whole walk around the track, it was just loud. It was cool.
toledo: How has your life changed since you made the team?
Vargas: It’s changed a lot. No free time! I’ve been doing a lot of interviews. But that’s cool; I like getting my story out. And I’m glad people are there to listen. But it’s been great. Toledo has given me, and, I think, will continue to give me, a lot of support. It’s real nice. I feel like Toledo is a big home for me. I don’t care where I am in the city, I still feel comfortable. I feel comfortable everywhere.
toledo: Do you eat Wheaties®?
Vargas: Wheaties? No.
toledo: Will you, if they put your face on the box?
Vargas: Yeah! (Laughs.) If they put my face on the box, I’ll take a Wheaties box with me everywhere I go! I’ll eat it all the time.
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