Man adopts sick child - and becomes the proud father of an Olympic champion

Created: 07/02/2022, 20:40

By: Isabel Wetzel

Jordan Windle was adopted in Cambodia more than 20 years ago - in 2021 he started for the USA at the Olympic Games.

(Archive image) © Akihiro Sugimoto/Imago

The story of Jerry and Jordan Windle begins more than 20 years ago in an orphanage in Cambodia - today it touches the whole world.

Florida – A story only life can write.

Jerry Windle always wanted to be a father.

This was not made easy for him, however, because Jerry was single and homosexual.

At the end of the 90s, the young man himself hardly believed that he would fulfill this dream again, but then everything suddenly changed.

Jerry read an article in a magazine about a man who had adopted an orphan from Cambodia.

He did not hesitate to contact the authorities in Cambodia and asked if it would be possible for a single man to adopt a child.

And the answer was, "Yes, it is!" Jerry told Today.

Infinite Love: From Emaciated Orphan to Olympic Champion

However, this news was not only to change Jerry's life.

Because Jordan, whose parents had died just a year after his birth, was living in an orphanage in Phnom Penh at the time.

At just 18 months old, the toddler was severely malnourished and suffering from severe infections when Jerry adopted him.

The father immediately took the boy to his heart in June 2000, took him to Florida and cared for him with loving devotion.

But even after the successful adoption, the two did not have an easy start in the USA.

Jordan was weak when he was two years old, weighing just 7 kilos and Jerry didn't know if his son would survive.

As Jordan Windle later reported on NBC, he was bullied as a kid because he was the foreign adoptee of a gay man "and just kind of different in general."

But the father's love seemed to overcome everything.

Jordan Windle Makes His Dad Proud: The Beginning of an Olympic Career

Jordan's sporting career began at the age of 7 at a summer camp in Florida.

Tim O'Brien, immediately noticed Jordan's natural way of pointing his toes and positioning his shoulders behind his neck.

The diving coach was certain that the boy could one day become a national champion - and he was right.

Just two years later, Jordan Windle won his first National Junior High Diving Championship.

After a brief setback in 2016, the young man finally fulfilled his dream of the Olympics in 2021.

In 2021 he represented the USA in Tokyo - and in his heart also for Cambodia.

And with that he made his father immensely proud.

He wrote on Facebook: "So incredibly proud of you Jordan Windle!

You made history once again by becoming the first Cambodian athlete to jump in the Olympics and you finished your first games in the top 10!”.

An incredible success story.

(iwe)