When Jerry Wendl decided to adopt a severely malnourished Cambodian orphan, he had no idea the boy would one day stand on an Olympic stage. But the medical challenges they faced on the journey were far more dangerous than anyone anticipated. The training center staff gave the toddler only a slim chance of survival during the first year of his life. He was losing weight every week, and his caregiver feared his immune system would not hold out long enough for the adoption to be processed.
Jerry calmly told her to keep hope and to focus on getting the boy well enough that a flight would not kill him. In June 2000, Jerry traveled to Phnom Penh to meet the boy, who was then 18 months old and weighed just over 7 kilograms. Advisors told him that the fever, parasites, and general weakness made the trip a risk, but Jerry had already signed the papers. He returned to the United States a few weeks later with his new son, Jordan, and a medical chart that listed more conditions than he had ever seen on a single page.
The first six months were the hardest. Jordan was hospitalized almost immediately after arriving in Ohio, with respiratory infections that antibiotics could not clear. Jerry slept in the hospital room for eleven nights, holding Jordan’s hand through the worst of the fevers. Still, the boy lost weight and the doctors began to talk about whether they should postpone the next stage of treatment.
Jordan survived that crisis, then faced another, and another. He was five years old when he went through his first serious surgery, and seven when he was diagnosed with the condition his doctors believed caused the malnutrition in the first place. Jerry never allowed the diagnosis to define what his son could do. He signed Jordan up for swimming lessons, then for the school track team, then for taekwondo classes — partly for fitness and partly because the boy loved moving.
“I told him, whatever he wanted to do, I would support him,” Jerry recalled in a later interview. “But I never pushed. I just wanted him to be healthy. ”
Jordan took to running in middle school and joined the cross-country team.
By high school, coaches were noticing that his natural speed was remarkable — even more so given his small frame. He earned a place on the U. S. junior national team at 17, then accepted a scholarship to a top university, where he starred in both track and cross-country.
He set school records in the 5,000 meters and won multiple conference championships. At the U. S. Olympic Trials, Jordan crossed the line third, securing a spot on the team that would travel to the Paris Olympics.
Jerry watched from the stands, crying quietly behind his sunglasses. When Jordan came over, they hugged without saying much. The whole stadium could see the connection between them. “People ask me where I’m from,” Jordan said during an interview shortly after the race.
“They expect me to say Cambodia, or to talk about my biological parents. I don’t remember any of that. What I remember is a father who carried me through hospitals, who learned to give me my medicine, who slept in that chair and never once let me give up. ”
Jerry, speaking from their Ohio home, smiled when asked about the moment he realized Jordan could reach the Olympic level.
“When he was little, I just wanted him to live. Then I just wanted him to be happy. When he qualified, I cried for a week. I still can’t fully believe it.
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Jordan is the first Cambodian-born athlete to qualify for the U. S. Olympic track team in his event, and one of only a few Olympic athletes in any sport who came through the international adoption system. His biological mother has never been located, and Jordan has stated that he feels no anger toward her.
“I don’t know her story,” he said. “I only know the one I got, and it’s a good one. ”