Few have grappled with life like Long Beach’s national champion wrestler, Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez.
The 18-year-old, University of North Carolina-bound prodigy almost died as a little 6-year-old boy when a swarm of chimpanzees viciously attacked him in his native Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I was with my family, and they came out of nowhere,” he told The Post days after winning the National High School Coaches Association title at 123 pounds.
“Everything happened pretty fast.”
The beasts killed both his brother and cousin, and Sibomana-Rodriguez was left extremely disfigured. The primates mauled his face, bit off his left middle finger, part of his right ear, destroyed a chunk of his left forearm and left other scars across the poor child’s body.
“I’ve had about 16 surgeries now,” added Sibomana-Rodriguez, who speaks softly due to lasting damage around his mouth.
Life in Africa was hard enough before the tragedy, as his impoverished family already struggled to make ends meet. Things only got worse after becoming physically deformed.
“He was sent out to the street to beg for money, to bring money into his house,” said Long Beach assistant wrestling coach Miguel Rodriguez, Dunia’s adoptive father.
“Those are some of the things that he had to do as a child.”
Sibomana-Rodriguez came to America for reconstructive surgeries a few months after the harrowing incident and lived with foster families both on Long Island and in Brooklyn.
“I kind of just had to go with the flow,” said Sibomana-Rodriguez, whose birth parents have since died.
As if he wasn’t different enough, the young immigrant knew only his native language, Swahili, when he first came to America.
“It took a little while to fit in, meet people and get people to like me,” Sibomana-Rodriguez admitted.
That all changed one fateful day on the South Shore over a decade ago.
‘Became best friends’
Sibomana-Rodriguez came to Long Beach as part of a program run by the local shop Skudin Surf, which gets kids with physical and cognitive disabilities into the water.
It was the first time he splashed in the ocean.
Miguel and his 2018 state champion heavyweight son, Elijah, were working at a deli when a family friend told them that Sibomana-Rodriguez was down at the shore.
The duo at the time was looking after 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 of his plight.
“Isaiah pointed to his face and said, ‘What happened to your face?’ Dunia pointed to where his legs would be and said, ‘What happened to your legs?’ ” Elijah recalled.
“They started playing. They went to the beach. They went surfing together, and we became friends after that.”
The Rodriguez clan officially adopted Sibomana-Rodriguez when he was in middle school, and he has thrived in the family sport since fourth grade.
‘Received a lot of love’
“Even though I didn’t know much about it, wrestling was just the right one 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 on top of his recent national achievement, which he said “meant a lot” in his final year of high school after placing second in 11th grade.
He committed to UNC as a junior and was just named county wrestler of the year for the second year in a row this week.
“They say what makes a champion is what is done when no one is looking. He is a true testament of that,” Elijah said.
“He’s the kind of kid that wakes up in the morning and does his workouts . . . is putting in the extra work, not because anyone told him to, but because he knows what it takes to be at the next level.”
It didn’t take long for Long Beach to love Sibomana-Rodriguez, not just as an athlete but as a person, too.
“It’s a very small town. It’s a very loving town,” Miguel said. “So wherever he went . . . he received a lot of love, a lot of attention.”
All the compassion and success gave the 5-foot-1 champ a true sense of self and happiness — he’s known to do backflips after winning a match — from an early age.
“He started just walking around like a superstar. He’s walking around saying hi to everyone, chest tall, confident, and, regardless of the fact that he was a little kid who looked a little bit different than everyone else,” Elijah said.
“He was just out there having fun.”
‘A blessing’
Sibomana-Rodriguez also went from being held back a year in second grade while learning English to a champion in the classroom, where faculty and locals are also rooting for him.
“He doesn’t have a favorite subject; he has favorite teachers who make hard classes his favorite classes . . . he’s got a teacher who makes him love math,” said Miguel.
“He made the high honor roll the first and second semester of his senior year.”
Along with making the Olympics one day, Sibomana-Rodriguez dreams of working in finance after school and perhaps on Wall Street.
He’s become an inspiration to fellow Long Beach wrestlers, such as his grappling partner, 10th-grader Ethan Andreula.
“Dunia helps push me, beats me up sometimes,” said Andreula, who placed fourth in nationals this year.
“Seeing him succeed on the highest levels makes me feel happy,” added Andreula.
Sibomana-Rodriguez and Elijah also coach youth wrestlers in Long Beach along with their dad, paying it forward to the next generation.
“I try my best to be a good role model for all of them and do the right thing,” he said.
“And make sure they’re doing the right thing.”
Now the surf and sushi-loving Long Island teen faces his next big challenge — being away from the home he’s so deeply fallen in love with while at Chapel Hill.
“It will be hard to get used to being away from my family,” he said.
But there’s no challenge Sibomana-Rodriguez can’t rise to.
“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’re just meant to be,” said Miguel.
“Dunia coming right to Long Beach out of any place in this country or the world, it was just a blessing.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
