A warm welcome home for Torres
The minute the elevator’s doors opened, and Gil Torres saw his son Matthew, he was overcome with emotions.
The Paralympic medalist, and Gil’s only child, was finally back home for the first time in over a year.
Torres rushed to embrace his son. He followed by a small handful of friends and family who also had come to the Newark Liberty International Airport (N.J.) for Monday’s surprise welcome home party in baggage claim.
With tears in his eyes, Torres reached and grabbed his son’s left wrist and raised it high.
“The champ is here!” he shouted as the crowd responded back with applause and ‘U-S-A’ chants.
Matthew Torres returned home to Ansonia this week after spending the past year in Colorado training for the 2020 Paralympics. The Fairfield University junior returns home as one of the United States’ top paraswimmers and a bronze Paralympic medalist after making his debut in the Summer Games in Tokyo this summer.
“Our son has returned home after being away for so long. That was so hard, but hard in a beautiful way,” Gil said. “Like finally, I got to hold him again and he came home with a medal, which I mean, how much more can you ask for? That was just absolutely amazing.”
Since he was 7 and watched Michael Phelps compete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Matthew, who was born with amniotic band syndrome and missing half of his right leg, always had the goal of competing in the Paralympics. He started swim lessons a week after watching Phelps and became classified in paraswimming two years later. He won meet after meet and never slowed down.
After his freshman collegiate season at Fairfield was cut short a week by the pandemic, Torres made the decision to move to Colorado in August 2020 to train yearround with the U.S. national team for the chance to make Team USA the following spring ahead of the Paralympics.
Torres came home for just two weeks between August 2020 and September 2021. For two weeks during December, he was able to be with family and friends for the holidays before going back to training.
The commitment paid off in June when he officially made the Team USA paraswim Paralympic roster.
“That was a really really big moment,” Martha, Matthew’s mom, said. While both her and Gil were not able to watch the paraswim trials in person because of safety protocols, they were able to meet with Matthew in a hotel following the meet when the roster was announced. “It was amazing. We were so happy we were able to be there for him.”