US gymnast Orozco aims for Olympic Gold to help family move out of Bronx

London, July 29 (ANI): American teen gymnast John Orozco has set his sights on winning a gold medal at the London Olympics to help his family get out of the blue-collar section of New York's Bronx area.

When the Bronx teen's father, William Orozco, a Manhattan sanitation worker, signed his seven-year-old son up for free inner-city gymnastics lessons back in 2000, he had no idea that he had an Olympian on his hands.

Orozco's Olympic dream has required a fair amount of sacrifice from his family, as they were unable to afford his lessons in Chappaqua. Therefore, his parents had to work out a financial arrangement with the gym.

"My whole family was working there at one point," People.com quoted Orozco, as saying, who stresses how grateful he is for their help and plans to "get [them] out of the Bronx one day."

Despite his rough surroundings with having to share a bedroom with three older brothers, Orozco stuck with gymnastics and eventually switched to a Chappaqua, New York gym for advanced lessons, the report said.

"Around 13 years old I realized I really wanted to get serious. So that's the time when I knew, 'Okay, I gotta turn my dreams into a goal'," he said.

However, Orozco 's still proud of the Bronx, even after recalling incidents like the day when he was 10 and he and his brothers fought off a large group of knife-wielding men while on their way home from church. (ANI)