By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, planned for July 28-August 11, will provide an opportunity to watch and cheer for 32 Mexican women at the top of their games. More than a few have been competing for decades and are determined to medal. They will be competing in 16 sports. Two Mexican teams in particular are worth attention – artistic swimming (with eight women) and gymnastics (also eight). Since Mexico has not taken home any medals in these team sports in past Olympics, a win would be especially meaningful and a cause for national celebration.

Swimmers

Although Mexico has never medaled in Olympic artistic swimming (aka synchronized swimming), the recent performance of the current team has raised high hopes. This is the first time since 1996 that the whole team qualified for the Olympics. The team won the gold medal in the Pan American games in Chile in 2023. And team member Itzamary Gonzalez along with her partner won a silver medal in the 2023 World Championship for their beautiful duet.

Other team members to watch in Paris who have previously medalled, albeit not in the Olympics, are 33-year-old Nuria Diosdado, one of the team captains, who has been performing since her early teens, and her award-winning duet partner Joana Betzabe Jiménez García, who is 30 years old.

Gymnasts

The Mexico Rhythmic Gymnastics Team will be appearing for the first time in the Paris Olympics. Members Julia Gutiérrez, Ana Flores, Kimberly Salazar, Adirem Tejeda, and Dalia Alcocer were overjoyed to win the silver medal at the 2023 Pan American games. Rhythmic Gymnastics (aka ribbon dancing) has been part of the Olympics since the Los Angeles games in 1984. The competition will be fierce, especially from the members of the teams from Eastern Europe – Russian gymnasts have garnered more medals in the sport than those of any other country. A medal for Mexico would not only be a first but miraculous. In the last Olympics, Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram snatched the gold from the Russians – so it would not be impossible for the Mexican team to do the same.

A Sailor

A medal in sailing would also be a first for Mexican women. Sailor Elena Oetling Ramírez, a 31-year-old Olympian from Chapala, Jalisco, will be racing against the odds in the Laser Radial class, single-handedly piloting a light-weight single-masted dinghy – her specialty. She was named the top sailor in Mexico after competing in the 2020 World Cup regatta in Miami, but her showing in the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo was less than stellar and she wound up in 32nd place. Honing her skills in the following years in the yacht club in Puerto Vallarta, she finished in 6th place in the 2023 Pan American Games. In Paris, she’ll be competing against sailors from Great Britain and Australia who have garnered multiple Olympic medals in this water sport, and against women from China and the Netherlands, both of whom have earned more than one Olympic medal. But stay tuned to watch Ramírez in the Mediterranean waters off Marseille battle to best her own 6th place showing and wind up on the podium.

The rest of the sports in which Mexicanas are competing (archery, athletics [running], cycling, diving, … taekwondo) are events in which Mexico has taken home medals in past Olympics, so expectations are high that the Mexicana Olympians will once again be on the podium.

Archers

The Mexico Women’s Archery Team solidified their place at the Paris games by earning the bronze medal in the World Games in Berlin last August. The team of Aída Román, Alejandra Valencia, and Ángela Ruiz also won the gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador in 2023. Based on the number of medals won in past Olympics, Mexico ranks 20th in archery. The “three As” team faces heavy competition, but with the formerly unbeatable South Korean team showing recent signs of weakness, a door may be opening to the podium for these Mexicana archers.

They also have a chance of medaling in the individual competitions. Valencia, age 29, who has already won an Olympic bronze, is likely to be on the podium again. Born in Hermosillo, Sonora, Alejandra was an all-around athlete beginning at an early age. She began learning archery at age 9 and has won numerous medals in competitions all over the world, including three golds at the Pan American games and a silver in the 2023 Berlin games (at which her team took the bronze). She also holds a degree in graphic design from the University of Sonora.

Aida and Angela also should not be underestimated. At age 35, this will be Aida’s 5th appearance at the Summer Games, with one silver medal achieved in London in 2012. Born in Mexico City and married with four children, she brings experience and stability to the team and hopefully greater concentration to her game than in some of her past Olympic competitions. At age 17, Angela is just emerging as an archer to be taken seriously. She too started recurve (a form of bow) archery at age 9, in her case in Saltillo. Her first international competitions were not stellar, but she seems to be improving in every match and may reach the top of her game in Paris.

Athletes – Running

The runner Citlali Cristian Moscote was first Mexican athlete to qualify for the 2024 Olympics. Over a year ago, in February 2023, Moscote completed her qualifying run in the Seville (Spain) Marathon, placing fourth in a time only two previous Mexicanas have bested. At age 28, Moscote has been on track to run in the 2024 Olympics for years, placing 6th in the 2019 Summer FISU (International University
Sports Federation) World University Games half-marathon in Naples, Italy; winning the Mexico City half-marathon in 2021; and placing in the top ten in 2022 in the marathon in Eugene, Oregon, in competition with some of the best runners in the world. In the 2023 Pan American Games, Moscote’s marathon pace took home the gold. Moscote was born in San Juan de Lagos, Jalisco, but was primarily educated in Guadalajara. She matriculated at the University of Guadalajara, where she studied marketing and was recognized as a leading runner in competitions for the University.

Divers

We first introduced readers of The Eye to Mexicana divers in an article in the June 2018 issue. We described Paola Espinosa Sánchez from La Paz, South Baja California, and her bronze-medal-winning performance in 2008 in Beijing for the synchronized platform event. This was the first-ever medal for Mexico’s women’s diving team. We also introduced Alejandra Orozco Lorza, now 26 years old, from Guadalajara, Paola’s partner in London in 2012 and their silver-winning duo in the same event. Alejandra will be in Paris after placing 6th in the 2023 World Championships in the individual 10-meter platform event. Her partner, 23-year-old Gabriela Agundez from La Paz, won an individual silver medal in the Tokyo Games and, with Orozco, a bronze in Tokyo for synchronized diving, so it would not be surprising to see both women on the podium in Paris.

We would be remiss to remind our readers that there are women at the top of their games who were not selected to compete in the Olympics due more to the complicated qualification procedures than their lack of expertise. Another award-winning Mexicana diving duo is Paola Pineda, 23, a student at the University of Texas from Guanajuato, and Arantxa Chávez, 32, also from Guanajuato and a Mexican Army athlete. They proudly received the gold medal for their 3-meter springboard synchronized performance at the 2023 Pan American Games as well as individual medals. At the very top of their game, they are sheer perfection to watch – so they will be missed in Paris. And the Mexicana soccer team also won the gold in the 2023 Games in Chile but, given the Eurocentric rules, did not qualify for Paris in 2023. But stand proud for those wonderful women who did make it through the selection process for Paris. Enjoy the Olympic Games and cheer loud enough to be heard anywhere in Mexico.