A Quote by Francisco Costa

Right after high school, I moved to Rio and took classes to become a technician for a manufacturing factory where you had to figure out how to produce 3,000 pairs of jeans. But in Rio, I was by myself, which was very liberating, being so young. I got to do my own thing.
Rio was a period of my life, and then, poof, I'm gone. I was very young living here, just kind of floating. New York was a foundation for everything I do today. Rio was the bridge.
I said, '200 pairs of jeans,' and then it just kind of went everywhere. I don't really own 200 pairs of jeans - I own a million pairs of jeans. No, but I definitely have a very solid amount. I won't say a number, but it's aggressive.
I had no role models from my own community - there was no such thing. Earlier on, there were people like Dolores Del Rio, but I was too young for that - that was before me. There was really nobody out there.
Everything that I got, it's special. I mean, I had the silver medal from Rio. Also was one of my best week ever on tour, playing for my country in Rio. Davis Cup, it's also special for me and for my country.
I was familiar with that and 'Rio Bravo.' 'Rio Bravo' was what John Carpenter did, that brilliant move of taking a western and turning it into an urban flick. And from there you got, you know, all the cop genre movies of the time.
I was a fan of jujitsu, so that pretty much got me started in fighting. I won a lot of local competitions when I was young and eventually won a ticket to go compete in Rio de Janeiro. In Rio, I struggled a lot in the beginning, living in the gym and not having much to eat, but eventually I joined the Nova Uniao Team and really improved my skills.
Brazil obviously connotes something in my mind to do with desire, sexuality and freedom. In fantasy, in mythology, Rio is the iconography of the imagination. In essence, we're all sex tourists. I've never been to Rio and I've never been to a psychoanalytic convention, but in a sense, Rio is symbolic of desire, some sort of ultimate ecstasy.
I moved to New York when I was 10, from Rio de Janeiro. So there was no need for driving: I took the subway, cabs and the bus.
If I hadn't won at the Worlds and claimed so many ranking points, I would have been struggling for Rio. I'm in a good place now, though, and having the chance to fight for gold in Rio after everything I've been through would be a dream.
We had to learn that in London and in Rio that we just weren't enough at that point. Did we believe it in that moment? Absolutely. We had to go one extra step to figure it out.
I didn't make any kind of grades in high school. My mother was a single mom, putting my three sisters through college, and I was such a bad student that I knew I had no right to take her money. But I loved being in classes and learning. I took in a huge amount of what I learned, but I had a feeling of always being behind and being in trouble.
Rio was always going to be on the schedule for me, whether I had won in London or not. Triathlon is one of those sports where the Olympics is always the most important and the most interesting race, and I always wanted to have a crack at Rio and defend my title.
I've taken every writing class I've had available. I took classes in high school, and I took English and writing classes in community college, but I dropped out of college. I also attended a local writing workshop two years ago.
A gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics is what I'm looking for. I have to pace my training in such a way that I'm at my best in Rio, and when I'm in form, no opponent can come in my way.
I moved to L.A. right after I finished high school, for three years, because everybody was telling me it was important to get down there, and then I kind of just decided for myself that I didn't need to be there to be doing this. I wanted out of some of the chaos that comes with living here and being an actor.
I've always known that Rio and Tokyo are my two Olympics. Now that Rio hasn't gone to plan, Tokyo has to work, and I'm more motivated than ever.
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