Clearing the hurdles by Di Linh Hoang

Mustafa Mudada is a freshman athlete at UNM, majoring in criminal justice. His usual day consists of waking up at 5:45 a.m., eating a little snack, getting ready, taking the bus, going to the locker room and changing into his workout clothes and arriving at the training room to stretch around 7 a.m. Some students believe that athletes get benefits and don’t work hard, Mudada said.

“Well, most people see being an athlete as being lazy, school isn’t hard, and we get by with all kinds of stuff. But realistically, being an athlete is like work, reporting to our practice is like going to a job, but we like it though, and there is so much more pressure added to it,” Mudada said.

Mudada gets home around 10 p.m., with only about seven hours to sleep before it is time to get up again and start over.

He hopes to run and represent his mother’s country, Sierra Leone, in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Mudada said he will continue to strive toward his goal and enjoy each day.