Chateauroux. Guatemala won its first Olympic gold medal in history thanks to Adriana Ruano’s victory in the trap event of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, this Wednesday in Châteauroux (central France).
A serious spinal injury ended Ruano’s dream of becoming an Olympic gymnast in 2011. Thirteen years later, she competed as a shooter and won Guatemala’s first gold medal at a summer competition, breaking an Olympic record.
This is the second medal for the Guatemalan delegation at this event in France and the second in shooting, after Jean Pierre Brol’s bronze on Tuesday in the men’s trap category.
Before Paris 2024, the only medal won by the Central American country at the Olympic Games was the silver medal won by race walker Erick Barrondo in the 20-kilometre race at the 2012 London edition.
Ruano, 29, also broke the Olympic record in a final by finishing with 45 hits in 50 attempts. The record in force until Wednesday was held by Slovakia’s Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova, which dated back to July 28, 2021 (Tokyo 2020) and was 43 points.
The world record, held by American Ashley Carroll, is 48 units, set in 2018.
The Guatemalan took the lead from the start, after being the only one to score a full house in the first round of five throws, and from then on she did not relinquish the first place in the final.
She remained serious and focused throughout, wearing her blue ear protectors, and only at the end of her performance did she allow herself to show her emotions, breaking down in tears from the emotion.
The silver medal went to the Italian Silvana María Stanco (40 points) and the bronze went to the Australian Penny Smith (32).
Spain was left with a bitter taste in its mouth. It managed to have two chances in the final of six competitors, but Mar Molné came fourth and Fátima Gálvez fifth, being the third and second to be eliminated, respectively.
For Guatemalan sport, July 31, 2024 will be a historic date, as it has achieved its highest position in the Olympic Games and the harvest of successes may not have ended in this edition.
Athletics will kick off on Thursday, and with it race walking, where Erick Barrondo (33 years old) is part of the Guatemalan delegation. In this sport, a clear option for a medal is Luis Grijalva, fourth in the last two World Championships (2022 and 2023) in the 5,000 meters and aspiring to get on the podium in one of the most outstanding events.
From gymnastics to sport shooting
Adriana Ruano, recognized for her hard work, effort and perseverance, is the first woman in the discipline of gun shooting in the history of Guatemala to qualify for the Olympic Games.
She was born on June 26, 1995 and was involved in sports from a very young age. She started ballet when she was three years old, a passion that she later shared with artistic gymnastics.
At the age of four, she discovered that she wanted to be a gymnast and Olympian, after meeting Luisa Fernanda Portocarrero, a practitioner of that discipline.
Adriana began training with the National Gymnastics Federation of Guatemala and was already part of the national team at the age of eight, but at 16 she suffered a spinal injury that prevented her from participating in the national qualifying tournament for London 2012.
Unable to return to gymnastics, her chances of making it to the summer competitions diminished, but at the end of 2012 she was invited to practice shooting with hunting weapons.
In 2013, she began to train more intensively in this discipline and, after a lot of practice, she obtained the pass she had longed for by qualifying for Tokyo 2020, where she finished in 26th place.
In 2021 she finished as the best Latin American in the women’s world ranking and now in Paris she has just made history.
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– 2024-08-01 14:02:49
