Jamele Mason, former Track & Field Olympian who competed in front of 60,000 people at the 2012 Olympic Games for team Puerto Rico. Jamele’s passion has always been running track and it has opened the doors of opportunity for him. As a magna cum laude alum of Texas Tech University, he graduated with a degree in Corporate & Organizational Communications.
“Because of track, I was able to attend college on a full ride scholarship and become the first person on my mom's side of the family to graduate from college. Running track has also allowed me so many opportunities in life and has allowed me to see so many places in the world.”
In 2012, he was the NCAA runner up in the 400 meter hurdles and ranked within the top 20 in the world. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed in the Men's 400 meters hurdles. Jamele is the school record holder for the 400 meter hurdles being the only person in school history to run faster than 49 seconds. His personal best is 48.89 which he ran at the 2012 NCAA championships.
Jamele currently lives in Los Angeles, California where he extends “inspiration, hope and love to everyone I come across.” He currently sells real estate and works towards improving other families lives by helping them obtain life insurance. When it comes to my life's mission, “I try to live by the motto, leave people better than you found them".
“Traveling is my sanity and if I can't travel, life for me becomes very boring. The first time I traveled, I was 2 years old. I went to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands where a lot of my family migrated to from Puerto Rico and it became a routine trip throughout the years to visit my great grandparents and other family who lived there. Over the years, both my parents and grandparents saw more than just the environments we were familiar with and because of track, I got to expand my travel horizon even more by traveling to countries in Europe, Asia & The Caribbean.”
“Being a part of the Latinx community is very important to me. Being that I'm Puerto Rican, there was always a great sense of pride that was instilled in me from the day I was born. Growing up in Houston, there wasn't a huge Puerto Rican community in the areas I grew up in, so the pride that we had for being Puerto Rican came from my family and I remember the day that I thought being Puerto Rican was the coolest thing ever. I was in a car with my mom and siblings driving on the freeway and we were listening to the radio and Big Pun's-Still not a player song came on and at the end where they are saying, "Boricua, Morena", my mom had the biggest smile on her face and she said to us, "He's talking about us, we are Boricua".
I remember that every time the song came on the radio or my friends at school would sing it, I would be so proud to tell them I was Boricua. So Latinx culture to me is pride but it’s also about family, love, tradition and good times.
.png)
