Guatemala, a rustic of greater than 17 million folks, celebrated its first Olympic gold medal Wednesday when Adriana Ruano Oliva set a report on her approach to successful the ladies’s lure capturing occasion.

Ruano Oliva, 29, smashed 45 clays to interrupt the Olympic report of 43 set by Zuzana Rehák-Štefečeková of Slovakia in 2021.

“I can’t even imagine it’s for actual. I’m so completely satisfied. I’m honored to be right here, and it wasn’t simple to get right here once more. I wish to thank Guatemala, and likewise my father,” Ruano Oliva mentioned Wednesday. Her father died in 2021, three weeks earlier than she competed within the Tokyo Olympics.

Her efficiency drew worldwide reward, together with from Guatemala’s president Bernardo Arévalo.

“The Olympic historical past of Guatemala is written in golden letters because of Adriana Ruano,” he wrote on social media in Spanish.

Coming into 2024, Guatemala had competed in 14 Olympic Video games with just one medal. Érick Barrondo received silver in London in 2012 within the 20-kilometer racewalk.

The nation has tripled that complete in two days. Ruano Oliva’s gold got here sooner or later after Jean Pierre Brol won bronze in the men’s event.

Guatemala has additionally appeared in a single Winter Olympics (1988) however didn’t medal within the alpine snowboarding or cross-country snowboarding occasions after sending six athletes. They first despatched athletes to the Summer time Video games in 1952 after which didn’t return to the Olympics till 1968, once they despatched a nationwide report 48 athletes.

For Ruano Oliva, her 2024 victory marks an unbelievable private comeback, as she suffered a gymnastics career-ending spinal damage in 2011 as a 16 12 months previous, which led her to take up capturing.

“After I had my damage (in 2011), I didn’t have something. I began to get determined, and I used to be pissed off,” Ruano Oliva mentioned after her win. “Then the door opened for me with this sport.”

Her gold additionally marks a exceptional Olympic comeback. Competing with a heavy coronary heart in Tokyo in 2021, she completed twenty sixth out of 26 shooters within the qualifying spherical.

Previous to Paris, Ruano Oliva received gold on the Pan American Video games and silver on the World Cup and the Continental American Championships. She entered this summer season ranked thirty first on the earth in line with the Worldwide Capturing Sport Federation.


Ruano Oliva weeps after turning into the primary gold medalist from Guatemala in Olympic historical past. (Photograph: Alain Jocard / AFP)

Ruano Oliva went from final to first within the span of two Olympics, beating out Italy’s Silvana Stanco, who took silver with 40 targets hit. With the gold secured after hitting her forty third goal, Ruano Oliva wept by way of her remaining photographs as Guatemala flags had been waved within the stands.

And for the primary time in Olympic historical past, “Himno Nacional de Guatemala,” the nationwide anthem of Guatemala, performed final within the medal presentation.

(Photograph: Alain Jocard / AFP through Getty Photos)





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