Christian Gonzalez is using his sister's Olympic success as motivation

BOULDER — While most of his teammates were sleeping in before a month of early mornings during fall camp, Christian Gonzalez was awake… briefly.

His sister, Melissa Gonzalez, was running the 400-meter hurdles in Colombian colors at the Olympics in Tokyo.

“Forty-five seconds and I can go back to sleep,” Gonzalez said with a laugh on Saturday.

Melissa made it to the semifinals, breaking her own national record in the process, but didn’t qualify for the final. She’s married to Detroit Lions quarterback David Blough, and you may have seen a clip of the watch party that the team threw for Melissa’s preliminary run floating around the internet.

Colombia's Melissa Gonzalez had quite the cheering section back home in the States as she qualified for the 400m hurdles semifinals yesterday.

Her husband, Detroit Lions QB David Blough, and his team held a watch party for her 👏💙

(via @Lions, @NBCOlympics) | #OlympicHERstory pic.twitter.com/nV1Hiekr6G

— On Her Turf (@OnHerTurf) July 31, 2021

“Our family is meant for that,” Gonzalez said.”It wasn’t a surprise for me. That’s what she’s been working on for her life. She got what she wanted.”

Gonzalez says that watching his sister compete in the Olympics is motivational for him; if you put the work in, then you’ll get what you want.

And Gonzalez has put in plenty of work, especially on the mental side of the game.

Specifically: “Forgetting about the one play and not keep thinking about the last play. Move on.”

He had plenty of opportunities to practice last season. He started all six games as a true freshman and was on-pace to play the fifth-most snaps ever by a true freshman at CU, if the Buffs had played a full season.

Because of that “true freshman” tag, opposing offenses tested Gonzalez. Against Stanford, in the second game of the season, Gonzalez was targeted 13 times.

“It was definitely different, coming out of high school where nobody would throw to my side,” Gonzalez said. “I invited that challenge. I came here to play early. I did what I wanted to do. A lot of people look at it as an insult (to be thrown at) but I looked at it as a challenge. It’s what I need to do just to prove myself.”

Now, Gonzalez is a veteran. He and Mekhi Blackmon have taken leadership roles in the cornerbacks room, despite the fact that much of the room is older than Gonzalez.

“It’s been fun helping out people,” Gonzalez said. “Now that I’ve had half a year under my wings, more of the defense trusts me when I’m saying stuff. It’s fun.”

In particular, he’s spent time teaching the playbook to the freshmen.

“They did what I did,” he said. “It’s a big change—the speed of practice, the speed of football, the whole mental aspect—they’re going through that, but they’ll be alright.”

Dorrell loves seeing Gonzalez work with the (slightly) younger players.

“The thing that I have noticed of him now, even in the spring, is that he’s helping those younger corners,” Dorrell said Friday. “Even though he’s young, he’s sharing his knowledge of what he’s learned over the last year. He’s gotten better from it and he’s trying to help coach up those younger players.”

While mentoring younger players is great, Colorado needs Gonzalez to improve on the field in Year 2 if the Buffs are going to achieve what they believe they’re capable of. Eventually, Colorado needs Gonzalez to become an all-conference type of player.

Dorrell believes that Gonzalez has already taken the next step.

“He did that over the summer,” Dorrell said. “He’s a quiet, confident player. You don’t hear much from him vocally but he’s a guy that’s high on detail, doesn’t like to make mistakes.”

The standards are high in the Gonzalez family, and not just because of Melissa.

“My other sister, Samantha, is awesome,” Gonzalez said. “She’ll be there for Paris.”

Christian has some big shoes to fill.