A 23-year-old homeless boy named Ivan Puskovitch has overcome different challenges including being homeless to qualify for the 2024 Olympics.
Ivan, a marathon swimmer who was formerly homeless has made it to the 2024 Olympics games in Paris. However the journey to earning the qualification was amidst different challenges, his hard work and mothers support.
“It was a ‘we’ effort … there’s so many people involved [along] the way, and she’s at the front of that freaking list,” Ivan said. He told GMA that his mother, Robyn Rabinovitch contributed a lot to his journey to the Olympics.
Robyn will also be present in Paris for the game where she will be rooting for him as he competes in the 10-kilometer marathon swim. The mother and son’s story went viral after family members started an online crowdfunding campaign to help fund her trip to Paris to see her son compete in the event.
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“I think she deserves to see the race. She is the most deserving of being able to see the culmination of all that sacrifice,” Ivan said. Robyn mentioned that Ivan always excelled in school and the pool adding that she was his primary swimming coach until he turned 13.
At the age of 7, Ivan had swum a 500-yard freestyle race, and by the age of 10, he had broken the national age group record in the event, according to his Team USA profile.
Even though the family faced financial difficulties, Robyn said she sent Ivan to a private school to support his swimming training after he began to make a name for himself among kids his age.
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“For me, it was worth whatever I was going to have to deal with to make that happen because he was really happy with his swim,” she said. She mentioned that in 2017, when Ivan was in high school, she woke up without vision in her right eye, and the financial fallout left their family homeless.
“My life just kind of imploded that summer. Of course, I was going to feed my kids. Whatever I needed to do for them,” she said.
Robyn recalled that there was a point when she had to make choices between feeding her kids and paying for her medication. She said the situation put the family on a very rough path for almost two years as they had to sleep in a friend’s car.
“We were just staying in like a mix of cars. And you know, maybe like a family friend’s basement … maybe a hotel if we could afford it for a couple of nights,” Ivan said.
Eventually, they managed to get back on track, but Ivan’s mother’s health issues persisted. Despite the setbacks, Ivan said he remained consistent with his success in his teenage years.
He stated that he won multiple junior titles both in pool and open water which also earned him an offer to attend the University of Southern California.
In February 2024, Ivan qualified for the 2024 Olympics for Team USA after he scored 14th place at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar. He said when it was announced he had made the team, his first reaction “was denial.”
“I was like, ‘There’s no way,'” he said. “This is one of those goals where no matter how long you visualize it … you’re never going to be fully prepared to comprehend achieving it,” Ivan said.
“The predominant emotion I was feeling was an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the journey, what we have all gone through to put me at this point,” he added. Robyn, who was watching from home said she was overjoyed and cried happy tears.
Robyn added that things got more surreal when her friend started a GoFundMe page to raise funds to help pay for her travel to watch her son compete in Paris. The page stated that the funds would be used to pay for the trip and also go toward covering Rabinovitch’s ongoing medical expenses.
“I can’t believe so many people have banded together to try to make sure that I’m going to be able to be there to see my son in the Olympics, living out his dream,” she said.
Ivan stated that his mother deserved to watch him as she had sacrificed a lot for him. He said though it is his moment, it is also her moment in a way too as it is the result of her sacrifice.
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