Romelio Salas was born in Colombia and came to the United States in the late 1970s. After meeting Pacific’s HOF coach Mike Clock as a youngster, Romelio contacted Clock in 1977 to wrestle for the Boxers. By 1980 he was an All-American. What surrounded that event was a mixture of coaching and international competitions. In 1975, he was fifth at the Pan Am Games for Colombia in Greco and repeated that placement in 1987. Romelio secured a win at the 1984 Olympic Games before blowing out his knee against American Dave Schultz. He wrestled again in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. That same year he won a freestyle gold medal at the Pan Am Games. He coached and trained with Roy Pittman at Peninsula Park from 1979 through 1989. He helped coach some familiar names in Oregon wrestling like Travis West, Hiag Brown, Tivon Abel, Glenn and Dave Nieradka and Mike and John Sills. Other coaching stops have included Grant High School from 1987-1989; Jefferson High School from 1989-1992; Tigard High School from 1992-2014; and McDaniel High School (formerly Madison) from 2015 to present. Romelio lives in Portland and has 3 boys: a 7th grader, a 12th grader and another enrolled at the Hillsboro Aero Academy.