She’s broken multiple records for the Dominican Republic, and now Marileidy Paulino is making sports history for her country…
The 24-year-old Dominican sprinter raced to the silver medal in the women’s 400-meter final with a time of 49.20 at the 2020 Tokyo Games, winning the Dominican Republic’s first-ever individual Olympic medal in women’s track and field.
Under Bahamas sprinter Shaunae Miller-Uibo’s time of 48.36, she beat Team USA‘s Allyson Felix, whose bronze medal run made her the most decorated woman in Olympic track history.
Paulino’s run is a personal best that sets a new national record for the Caribbean nation.
The sprinter, who is also a corporal in the Dominican Air Force, will also be coming home with another silver from her mixed 4×400-meter relay, a team consisting of Anabel Medina, Lidio Andrés Feliz, and Alexander Ogando.
Paulino’s 52-year old mother, Anatalia Paulino, told the Dominican Republic’s main newspaper, Listín Diario that her daughter made a promise to her when she arrived in Japan that she would bring back an Olympic medal to build a house in the country’s southern city of Nizao, where she resides with her brothers. After five years of preparing for the Olympics, she was finally be able to complete that promise.
