PARIS.- A serious spinal injury ended Adriana Ruano’s dream of becoming an Olympic gymnast in 2011. Thirteen years later, she competed as a shooter and captured her first Olympic gold medal. Guatemala in its history.
Ruano was crowned champion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Wednesday after setting an Olympic record in the women’s trap.
“I was trained in a system where I would go to gymnastics training for two hours in the morning, then go to school and train again in the afternoon,” Ruano recalled of her first sport. “When I got injured, I had nothing. I started to get desperate and frustrated. That’s when the doors to this sport opened for me.”
And how.
The 29-year-old shooter finished with a score of 45 out of a possible 50 shots to take the top spot on the podium at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.
Ruano closed his eyes and took a deep breath before hitting his 43rd target to secure gold with five shots to spare. He missed the next two shots, but it was of no consequence.
Good times for the country
Guatemala had never won a gold medal at the Games. The Central American nation had only managed one — the silver of race walker Erick Barrondo at London 2012 — until fellow shooter Jean Pierre Brol won a bronze in the men’s trap.
“I can’t believe it’s a reality, I’m very happy,” said Ruano. “It’s an honor. It wasn’t easy to get here.”
Italy’s Silvana Stanco took silver with 40 shots and Australia’s Penny Smith completed the podium.
Ruano was training for the 2011 World Gymnastics Championships, a qualifier for the London Games a year later, when she felt a sharp pain in her back.
An MRI revealed that the then 16-year-old gymnast had six damaged vertebrae — an injury that ended her career. Ruano’s doctor recommended that she compete in shooting if she wanted to participate in a sport that wouldn’t cause her additional back pain.
The doctor’s advice paid off on Wednesday.
Source: AP
