Monica Puig became Puerto Rico’s first gold medalist during the Rio 2016 Olympics and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, became the second gold medalist during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Despite the fact that Puerto Rico is an unincorporated U.S. territory it has participated in the Olympics as an “independent” country. This is due to the fact that it was recognized by the International Olympic Committee Charter back in 1948 as a separate entity (country) from the U.S.A.
Puerto Rico has tent Olympic medalist winners, 6 bronze medals, 2 silver medals, and 2 gold medals. I’m really excited to share with you eight Puerto Rican Olympic Medalists:
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| Images via Commons Wikimedia here, here and here |
- Juan Venegas, Bronze Medal from the 1948 London Games in Boxing.
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| Image source |
- Orlando Maldonado, Bronze Medal from the 1976 Montreal Games in Boxing.
- Luis Ortiz, Silver Medal from the 1984 Los Angeles Games in Boxing.
- Aristides Gonzalez, Bronze Medal from the 1984 Los Angeles Games in Boxing.
- Anibal Acevedo, Bronze Medal from the 1992 Barcelona Games in Boxing.
- Daniel Santos, Bronze Medal from the 1996 Atlanta Games in the Boxing.
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| Image source Santos on the right |
- Jaime Espinal, Silver Medal from the 2012 London Games in Wrestling.
- Javier Culson, Bronze Medal from the 2012 London Games in Men’s 400 Metres Hurdles.
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| Image source |
I’m looking forward to this year’s Olympics, and rooting for my small in size country but huge heart Puerto Rico!
This post was created for inclusion in the Olympics for Kids series hosted by Multicultural Kid Blogs. The Olympics are a wonderful opportunity to teach kids about the world and explore cultures together. Don’t forget that you can also download our Summer Games Unit activity pack to learn more about the world and have fun during the Olympics.
Puerto Rico is obviously very strong in boxing; such great results for such a tiny place, good luck in Rio! #OlympicsMKB