Guatemala, a country of more than 17 million people, celebrated its first Olympic gold medal Wednesday when Adriana Ruano Oliva set a record on her way to winning the women’s trap shooting event.
Ruano Oliva, 29, smashed 45 clays to break the Olympic record of 43 set by Zuzana Rehák-Štefečeková of Slovakia in 2021.
“I can’t even believe it’s for real. I’m so happy. I’m honored to be here, and it wasn’t easy to get here again. I want to thank Guatemala, and also my father,” Ruano Oliva said Wednesday. Her father died in 2021, three weeks before she competed in the Tokyo Olympics.
Her performance drew worldwide praise, including from Guatemala’s president Bernardo Arévalo.
“The Olympic history of Guatemala is written in golden letters thanks to Adriana Ruano,” he wrote on social media in Spanish.
La historia olímpica de Guatemala se escribe con letras de oro gracias a Adriana Ruano. Primera medalla olímpica para una mujer guatemalteca, primer oro para nuestro país.
¡Felicidades, Adriana! 🇬🇹🥇 pic.twitter.com/glneYos2ng
— Bernardo Arévalo (@BArevalodeLeon) July 31, 2024
Entering 2024, Guatemala had competed in 14 Olympic Games with only one medal. Érick Barrondo won silver in London in 2012 in the 20-kilometer racewalk.
The country has tripled that total in two days. Ruano Oliva’s gold came one day after Jean Pierre Brol won bronze in the men’s event.
Guatemala has also appeared in one Winter Olympics (1988) but didn’t medal in the alpine skiing or cross-country skiing events after sending six athletes. They first sent athletes to the Summer Games in 1952 and then didn’t return to the Olympics until 1968, when they sent a national record 48 athletes.
For Ruano Oliva, her 2024 victory marks an incredible personal comeback, as she suffered a gymnastics career-ending spinal injury in 2011 as a 16 year old, which led her to take up shooting.
“When I had my injury (in 2011), I didn’t have anything. I started to get desperate, and I was frustrated,” Ruano Oliva said after her win. “Then the door opened for me with this sport.”
Her gold also marks a remarkable Olympic comeback. Competing with a heavy heart in Tokyo in 2021, she finished 26th out of 26 shooters in the qualifying round.
Prior to Paris, Ruano Oliva won gold at the Pan American Games and silver at the World Cup and the Continental American Championships. She entered this summer ranked 31st in the world according to the International Shooting Sport Federation.
Ruano Oliva weeps after becoming the first gold medalist from Guatemala in Olympic history. (Photo: Alain Jocard / AFP)
Ruano Oliva went from last to first in 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 43rd target, Ruano Oliva wept through her remaining shots as Guatemala flags were waved in the stands.
And for the first time in Olympic history, “Himno Nacional de Guatemala,” the national anthem of Guatemala, played last in the medal presentation.
(Photo: Alain Jocard / AFP via Getty Images)