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Rio Waida was tiny as a kid. Unusually small for his age and not getting any bigger.Rio was so small, in fact, and bullied for so long, that his mother was beginning to fall into a deep depression. That is until his mother happened upon a documentary playing on an old black and white television in the corner of a roadside warung near their home in Bali. Spellbound, she watched the fuzzy images that came in and out of focus on the ancientTV. The section of the documentary that was playing was about the growth hormones that footballer Lionel Messi needed to take as a boy. That the great Lionel Messi, now seven times winner of the prestigious Ballon d’or– world player of the year, had suffered as a child from something called GHD or Growth Hormone Disorder, and that he too had been bullied and humiliated as a kid and that some kind of modern medical magic had fixed him.Something found in a doctor’s needles had allowed Lionel to grow up straight and strong, and become the most celebrated athlete on earth. Rio’s mother raced to the nearest hospital, to the nearest doctor and explained that her family would sacrifice everything to pay for what was in those needles. And that is exactly what they did. And that is what made all the difference. And even though all those jabs have been long left behind, the memory of them has never been easy.
Now, at 22 years old, Rio Waida is a square shouldered man. A highly trained, muscular174cm. Having risen from that humble child-hood reflection in the mirror to being poised to become Indonesia’s most prominent professional athlete. A young man who was lucky enough to defeat fate itself, to bear the pain of those hundreds of piercing needles as a child and transform it into raw determination, a new definition of what he was meant to become. A new incarnation of life itself. Below Rio shares what Messi means to him.
“I was the smallest kid in school and I got picked on a lot. Once some kids even took my money. I wasn’t growing well and I was getting bullied being the shortest guy in school, my uniforms didn’t fit and girls laughed and in restaurants I was asked if I wanted the child’s menu. It hurt my mum a lot, more than me, I think. I would try to fight, but everyone was bigger than me. Then my mum saw a documentary on Lionel Messi and he was a tiny kid and his mum put him on growth hormones and look how that worked.So my dad went to Japan to work construction for more money. Big skyscrapers and things like that. Hard work. And my mum took care of me and my little brother here in Bali. It was tough. Still is, and my dad is getting older and his job is very hard. Japan is very strict with workers. Now it is my turn to help. My parents wanted an easier life for me and now I want an easier life for them. That is a big motivation for me. I have my family behind me. And I want to make sure we always have enough to enjoy life, not just to survive.”
