Few have experienced life like Long Beach national champion, Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez.
This 18-year-old boy, from the University of North Carolina, who was arrested at the University of North Carolina, almost died as a 6-year-old boy when he was attacked by a group of chimpanzees in his village in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I had my family, and they came out,” he told The Post days after winning the National High School Coaches Association title at 123 pounds.
“It all happened very quickly.”
The monsters killed both his brother and his cousin, and Sibomana-Rodriguez was left severely disabled. The monkeys tore his face, bit his left middle finger, part of his right ear, destroyed part of his left arm and left other scars on the poor child’s body.
“I’ve had about 16 surgeries now,” added Sibomana-Rodriguez, who speaks softly because of the permanent damage to her mouth.
Africa’s life was hard enough before the tragedy, as her poor family was already struggling to make ends meet. Things got worse after he became physically disabled.
“He was sent out on the street to beg for money, to bring money to his house,” said Long Beach assistant wrestling coach Miguel Rodriguez, who is Dunia’s adoptive father.
“Those are some of the things he had to do as a child.”
Sibomana-Rodriguez came to America for surgery a few months after the horrific incident and lived with foster families in Long Island and Brooklyn.
“I had to keep going,” said Sibomana-Rodriguez, whose parents and cousins are dead.
As if he wasn’t different enough, this young immigrant only knew his native language, Swahili, when he first arrived in America.
“It took a while to get in, meet people and get people to like me,” admitted Sibomana-Rodriguez.
All that changed one bad day on the South Shore ten years ago.
‘Become best friends’
Sibomana-Rodriguez came to Long Beach as part of a program run by local shop Skudin Surf, which puts children with physical and mental disabilities in the water.
It was his first time splashing in the sea.
Miguel and his 2018 heavyweight champion son, Elijah, were working at a restaurant when a family friend told them that Sibomana-Rodriguez was down on the beach.
The two at the time were looking at another young wrestler, Isaiah Bird, who was born without legs and defied the odds to succeed on the mat.
They were all eager to meet Sibomana-Rodriguez after hearing about her plight.
“Isaiah pointed to his face and said, ‘What happened to your face?’ Dunia pointed to where her legs would be and said, ‘What’s going on with your legs?’ ” Elijah remembered.
“They started playing, they went to the beach. They went surfing together, and we became friends after that.”
The Rodriguez family officially adopted Sibomana-Rodriguez when she was in middle school, and she has been successful in the family game since the fourth grade.
‘You got a lot of love’
“Even though I didn’t know much about it, fighting was for me,” he said.
Sibomana-Rodriguez made the Marines’ varsity roster as an eighth-grader and has since won five Nassau County titles and three state championships in addition to her recent national success, which she said “meant a lot” in her senior year of high school after placing second in 11th grade.
He committed to UNC as a junior and was just named the county wrestler of the year for the second year in a row this week.
“They say that what makes a champion is what is done without looking at anyone. He is proof of that,” said Elijah.
“He’s the type of kid who wakes up in the morning and does his work . . . he does extra work, not because someone told him to, but because he knows what it takes to get to the next level.”
It didn’t take long for Long Beach to fall in love with Sibomana-Rodriguez, not just as an athlete but as a person, too.
“It’s a very small town. It’s a very loving town,” said Miguel. So wherever he goes. . . he was getting a lot of love, a lot of attention.”
All the sympathy and success has given the 5-foot-1 champion a real sense of feeling and joy — he’s been known to do backhands after winning a game — from an early age.
Elijah said: “He started walking around like a star.
“He was just out having fun.”
‘Blessing’
Sibomana-Rodriguez also went from being held back for a year in second grade while learning English to excelling in the classroom, where the faculty and local people supported him.
“He doesn’t have a favorite subject, he has favorite teachers who make difficult classes into classes he likes… he has a teacher who makes him love math,” said Miguel.
“He made the high honor roll the first and second semesters of his senior year.”
Along with making the Olympics one day, Sibomana-Rodriguez dreams of working in finance after school and possibly on Wall Street.
He has been an inspiration to other Long Beach wrestlers, such as his fellow wrestler, 10th grader Ethan Andreula.
“Dunia helps me push me, sometimes she beats me,” said Andreula, who finished fourth in the nationals this year.
“Seeing him succeed at the highest level makes me happy,” added Andreula.
Sibomana-Rodriguez and Elijah also coach youth runners in Long Beach with their father, paying it forward to the next generation.
“I try my best to be a good example to all and do the right thing,” he said.
“And make sure they’re doing the right thing.”
Now the surfing and sushi-loving teenager on Long Island faces his next big challenge — being away from the home he fell in love with while in Chapel Hill.
“It will be hard to get used to being away from my family,” she said.
But there is no challenge that Sibomana-Rodriguez cannot handle.
“This is the kind of kid who ran the New York City Marathon for fun in 2021,” laughed Elijah.
“We believe that God does things for a reason, and when things are meant to be, they are meant to be,” said Miguel.
“Dunia comes directly to Long Beach from anywhere in the country or the world, it was just a blessing.”
