Angie Palacios Has Earned Her First-Ever Olympic Medal Following Weightlifting Performance at 2024 Paris Games

Posted on August 9, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Angie Paola Palacios Dajomes is celebrating her spot on the podium at the 2024 Paris Games.

The 23-year-old Ecuadorian weightlifter and two-time Youth World Champion earned a bronze in the women’s 71KG weightlifting event on Friday with a final score of 256.

That was just one point shy of he score registered by the silver medalist, Colombia’s Mari Leivis Sanchez.

Team USA’s Olivia Reeves, who set a new Olympic record with a score of 262, took home the gold.

Palacion previously won the gold medal in the women’s 71 kg event at the 2023 Pan American Games held in Santiago, Chile.

In 2024, she won the gold medal in her event at the Pan American Weightlifting Championships held in Caracas, Venezuela.

Palacios is the younger sister of three time Junior World Champion Neisi Dajomes.

Arlen Lopez Cardona Gives Cuba Its First Medal of the 2024 Paris Games

Posted on August 4, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Arlen Lopez Cardona has given Cuba its first medal of the 2024 Paris Games.

The 31-year-old Cuban boxer, a two-time Olympic champion, had to settle for bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics after losing to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak in the Men’s 80KG boxing semifinal, ending his quest for a record-equalling third Olympic gold medal.

Lopez Cardona has previously claimed the middleweight gold at the 2016 Rio Games and the light-heavyweight gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Lopez Cardona had no answers to the 2020 Tokyo Games silver medalist’s pace and power, losing by a split decision as Khyzniak progressed to the final.

López also won gold medals at both the 2015 and 2019 Pan American Games, the 2014 and 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games and the 2015 World Championships.

Yunior Alcantara Reyes Takes Home Boxing Bronze at 2024 Paris Games

Posted on August 4, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Yunior Alcantara Reyes is celebrating his first-ever Olympic medal.

The 19-year-old Dominican boxer, a Pan American Games champion and Central American Games silver medalist, will take home a bronze medal in the Men’s 51KG boxing category at the 2024 Paris Games.

Alcantara lost to France‘s Billal Bennama in the semifinal by a point total of 5-0.

Bronze medals are given to the fighters who make it to the semifinals but don’t win the bout.

Bennama will fight Hasanboy Dusmatov in the gold medal match on Thursday, August 8.

Beatriz Souza Wins Women’s Judo +78kg Event to Give Brazil Its First Gold of 2024 Paris Games

Posted on August 2, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Everything’s coming up golden for Beatriz Souza.

The 26-year-old Brazilian judoka captured gold in women’s judo +78kg at the 2024 Paris Games by a final score of 1-0, defeating Israel’s Raz Hershko, who took home silver.

Souza gave a technical, intelligent, professional performance, one worthy of a position on top of the world.

In the final, Souza was faster to the attack than Hershko and she registered a waza-ari from a well-timed o-soto-gari. Hershko came back with a seoi-otoshi, which was close to scoring but didn’t have enough drive to meet the criteria.

Both continued to look for scores but that first o-soto was enough to carry Souza to the Olympic gold.

She was overcome with emotion, as was her coach, an Olympic champion herself, Sarah Menezes.

Souza’s victory secured the first gold medal of the 2024 Summer Olympics for the Brazil delegation.

Prior to the Paris Olympics, Souza won bronze in this weight class at the 2023 World Championships and the 2023 Pan American Games.

Adriana Ruano Wins Women’s Trap Event at the 2024 Paris Games to Give Guatemala Its First-Ever Olympic Gold

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Adriana Ruano is celebrating a golden first for her country…

The 29-year-old Guatemalan former-gymnast-turned-sports-shooter, who’s chances of competing at the Olympics as a gymnast ended with a spinal injury, set a new Olympic record in the women’s trap event at the 2024 Paris Games on Wednesday, giving Guatemala it’s first-ever Olympic gold medal.

Ruano was training for the 2011 world championships in gymnastics, a qualifier for the 2012 London Games the following year, when she felt pain in her back.

Scans showed she had six damaged vertebrae — a career-ending injury at age 16 — and she spent a year recovering, wearing a brace.

Ruano’s doctor recommended she take up shooting if she wanted to stay in sports without aggravating her injured back.

“When I had my injury, I didn’t have anything. I started to get desperate, and I was frustrated. Then the door opened for me with this sport,” Ruano said.

More than a decade after Ruano swapped the balance beam and vault for a shotgun, her doctor’s advice paid off at the 2024 Summer Games when she won the women’s trap with an Olympic-record score of 45 out of 50.

Ruano closed her eyes and took a deep breath before hitting her 43rd target to make sure Italian silver medalist Silvana Stanco couldn’t catch her for the gold. She missed her next two shots after that, but it didn’t matter.

It was a stint volunteering at the 2016 Rio Games that put her on the path back to elite-level sports.

“I said to myself, ‘If I can’t be there as an athlete, maybe I can be there as a volunteer’, so I applied,” she said. “They put me on shooting, and I was able to watch my teammates. I could see the competition, and that was the moment that inspired me to think, ‘OK, maybe if not in gymnastics, I can do it in shooting.’”

Ruano placed 26th at the 2020 Tokyo Games, shortly after her father had died.

Coming into Paris, though, she was the defending Pan American Games champion.

Now she has given her country an Olympic gold medal, a day after Jean Pierre Brol won bronze in the men’s trap to claim Guatemala’s first Olympic medal since race walker Erick Barrondo’s silver at the 2012 London Games.

Stanco won the silver on 40 and Australia’s Penny Smith took the bronze.

José Torres Gil Records Stunning Initial Score to Claim Gold in Men’s BMX Park at 2024 Paris Games

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

José Torres Gil is riding high!

The Argentine rider wowed his way to a gold medal with a stunning initial score of 94.82 at the 20024 Paris Games in the Men’s BMX Park final on Wednesday.

With the victor, Torres Gil not only claimed Argentina’s first medal of the 2024 Summer Games, he also won his country’s first individual gold medal in a cycling discipline.

“I couldn’t understand it, total craziness, it brought tears to my eyes,” was how Torres Gil explained hearing that he would be crowned Olympic champion at the Place de la Concorde, the temporary home of the Urban Sports Park.

Great Britain’s Keiran Reilly took silver after packing trick after trick into his second run, hauling himself above France’s Anthony Jeanjean with the final act of the competition. As he threw his bike across the boarded floor and dropped to his knees in exhaustion, you knew he had given all he could.

“It was probably the best final that we’ve ever seen on the international stage,” said Jeanjean, whose score of 93.76 was enough to win gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games three years ago.

A rider is scored out of 100 based on the best of their two 60-second runs in an Olympic final, this the second time the freestyle format has appeared at the Olympic Games, and points are awarded based on several criteria, including the difficulty, variety, creativity and execution of their tricks.

Torres Gil’s gold medal was the first for a South American nation at these Games and, in his first Olympics, he added to the Pan American Games title he won last year.

He was unfancied going into the final having qualified in seventh place with an average score of 86.66. That was behind Reilly, who qualified first, and the American duo of Marcus Christopher and Justin Dowell in second and fourth.

Martin occupied the third qualifying spot and Jeanjean the fifth, but it was Torres Gil who rose to the occasion with a high-scoring first run, which would stand as the benchmark for most of the competition.

Perhaps, though, that is part and parcel of the Olympics: where the unexpected can happen and the unfancied can become eternal.

“The level was extraordinary,” he said in his press conference. “The best athletes of the planet were here in Paris. I competed against the best of the world and I felt incredible; I feel part of this incredible universe.”

Jennifer Lozano Qualifies for 2024 Paris Games by Reaching Women’s 50 Kilogram Final at Pan American Games

Posted on October 26, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Jennifer Lozano is headed to the City of Lights…

The 20-year-old Mexican American boxer, a native of Laredo, Texas, has qualified next year’s 2024 Paris Games by reaching the final of the women’s 50 kilogram weight class at the Pan American Games.

Lozano was dominant in the semifinal against Canada’s Mckenzie Wright, winning 5-0.

She will face Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira, a silver medalist in Tokyo, for the gold medal.

With the semifinal win, Lozano has given the city of Laredo its first Olympian.

Laredo has about 230,000 residents and sits on the U.S. border with Mexico.

Lozano said in a recent interview that her city, a mix of poor and better off, is “very small, very closed-minded,” and she wanted to overcome its machismo to thrive in sport.

Next year, both sides of the city will be pulling for the boxer nicknamed “La Traviesa.” It will be a different scene compared with a few years ago, when she was bullied for being overweight and a Spanish speaker.

Boxing changed it all for the hardcore fan of legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. Her other hero is her late grandmother, the main inspiration for her to compete.

“We are going to Paris, baby. La Traviesa es de Laredo, Texas. We are ready for all of the world, we are going to the Olympics,” a tearful Lozano said in a mixture of English and Spanish. “Being the first Olympian from Laredo means a lot to me.”

She celebrated her Olympic berth with family members who traveled to Santiago to watch her compete.

“I am very proud to be Mexican-American,” she said.

Laredo could get a second Olympian in Paris. Boxer Emilio Garcia, who could not secure his spot at the Pan American Games, will have two more events to try to qualify for next year in the 63.5 kilograms category.

Yaime Perez Claims Bronze in Women’s Discus Throw at Tokyo Games

Posted on August 2, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

The third time’s the charm for Yaime Perez…

Competing in her third Olympics, the 30-year-old Cuban athlete was able to finally take the medal stand after claiming the bronze medal in the women’s discus throw competition at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Perez completed the competition with a best-throw of 65.72 meters.

Team USA’s Valarie Allman took home the gold with a throw of 68.98 meters.

German’s Kristin Pudenz won the silver with a throw of 66.86 meters.

Pérez won the gold medal at the 2019 World Championships and the 2019 Pan American Games.

Perez previously competed in the 2012 London Games, where she finished in 29th place in the qualifying round; and 2016 Rio Games, where she reached the final but did not advance after three throws.

Bruno Fratus Becomes Oldest Pool Swimmer to Win First Ever Olympic Medal at Tokyo Games

Posted on August 1, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Bruno Fratus’ wait is finally over…

The 32-year-old Brazilian competitive swimmer, considered one of the great men’s sprinters of this era, has earned his first career Olympic medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Fratus finished third in the final of the men’s 50 free, swimming a 21.57 to earn the bronze medal for Brazil. Team USA’s Caleb Dressel won the gold with a time of 21.07, setting an Olympic world record. France’s Florent Manaudou claimed silver with a 21.55.

Though Fratus has a decorated career at the World Championships, Pan Pacific, and Pan American Games, he had never won an Olympic medal until this one.

Additionally, Fratus has now become the oldest pool swimmer in history to win their first Olympic medal.

That title was previously held by American David Plummer, who won his first medal with a 3rd-place finish in the 100 back at the 2016 Rio Games at the age of 30. Plummer was 30 year, 304 days old when he earned his first medal, while Fratus was 32 years, 32 days old.

This wasn’t the first piece of history Fratus made in the past several days. With his semifinals performance of 21.60, Fratus became the first swimmer ever to record 90 sub-22 LCM 50 free performances in their career. He added to that total with his finals swim of 21.57, so he now has 91 career sub-22s. Fratus has hinted that these were his last Games, but it will be interesting if he chooses swims for another year or two, and is able to reach 100 sub-22 50 frees.

Yarisel Ramirez to Compete for USA Boxing at Tokyo Games

Posted on July 11, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Yarisel Ramirez will be gunnin’ for gold this month…

The 22-year-old Cuban-born featherweight boxer has been added to the Tokyo Games boxing tournament, becoming the 10th member of the U.S. team to qualify.

She’d already traveled to Japan in anticipation of gaining a late slot, and news of her addition by USA Boxing set off a celebration with her teammates.

Ramirez is the fourth American fighter to be awarded a late place at the Olympics. After the U.S. initially faced the prospect of heading to Tokyo with its smallest team in Olympic history, USA Boxing actually will have two more boxers in Tokyo than it had in Rio five years ago.

“Yarisel has been in this final training camp working extremely hard, waiting for this opportunity if her name were to be called,” said Mike McAtee, USA Boxing’s executive director. “During this whole process, Yarisel has showed nothing but maturity, determination and the drive to fulfill her Olympic dreams.”

Ramirez is getting one of the world qualifier allocation slots declined by Costa Rica’s Julianna Rodriguez and Argentina’s Leonela Sánchez, according to the website of the Boxing Task Force running the Tokyo tournament. Sánchez won the gold medal at the 2019 Pan American Games while Ramirez won bronze.

Ramirez was born in Cuba, and she lives and trains in Las Vegas. Her first fight will be on July 24, the opening day of competition in Tokyo and exactly two weeks from her addition to the field.

“Through hard work, perseverance and faith, you can live your dreams,” Ramirez said.

With Ramirez’s addition, USA Boxing is currently the only team with a representative in all five women’s divisions in Tokyo. The Olympics added two weight classes — including the 57-kilogram (125.7 pounds) division, Ramirez’s featherweight, class — and increased the total number of women from 36 to 100 for the sport’s third trip to the Olympics.

The U.S. is the most successful nation in Olympic boxing history, winning 50 gold medals and 114 total medals. But primarily thanks to qualification changes caused by the coronavirus pandemic, only six Americans — and just two men — were in the initial version of the Tokyo Olympic field two months ago.

Three American men were added to the field last month after being awarded world qualifier allocation slots: middleweight Troy Isley, featherweight Duke Ragan and lightweight Keyshawn Davis, who is likely the Americans’ best gold medal hope among the men.

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