Puerto Rico at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Puerto Rico at the
2016 Summer Olympics
IOC codePUR
NOCPuerto Rico Olympic Committee
Websitewww.copur.pr (in Spanish)
in Rio de Janeiro
Competitors40 in 15 sports
Flag bearer Jaime Espinal[1]
Medals
Ranked 54th
Gold
1
Silver
0
Bronze
0
Total
1
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)

Puerto Rico competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's eighteenth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.

The Puerto Rico Olympic Committee (Spanish: Comité Olímpico de Puerto Rico, COPUR) sent a team of 40 athletes, 13 men and 27 women, to compete in 15 sports at the Games.[2][3] The nation's full roster in Rio de Janeiro was 15 athletes larger than those who attended the London Games four years earlier, and also featured more female participants than men for the first time. Puerto Rican athletes made their Olympic debut in table tennis, triathlon, and women's indoor volleyball. Puerto Rico was also represented for the first time in taekwondo after 8 years, diving, equestrian, and tennis after 12 years, and road cycling after 20 years.[4]

Of the 40 participants, twenty-nine of them made their Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, including table tennis players Brian Afanador and 15-year-old Adriana Diaz, tennis player Monica Puig, and New York–based taekwondo fighter Crystal Weekes. On the other hand, the remaining eleven athletes on the Puerto Rican squad had past Olympic experience, including swimmer Vanessa García, who became the first woman from her country to compete in four Olympic Games; track star Javier Culson, who captured the bronze medal in the men's 400 m hurdles four years earlier in London; and freestyle wrestler Jaime Espinal (men's 86 kg), who pocketed his country's first silver in nearly three decades.[4] The most successful athlete of the previous Games, Espinal was selected to lead his delegation as the flag bearer in the opening ceremony.[1]

Puerto Rico returned home from Rio de Janeiro with its first ever gold medal in Olympic history. It was awarded to tennis player Puig, who surprisingly defeated Germany's world-ranked Angelique Kerber in the final of the women's singles tournament.[5][6] Two Puerto Rican athletes, however, came closest to join Puig on the podium: platform diver Rafael Quintero, who rounded out his maiden Games with a seventh-place finish, and Culson, who was disqualified in the men's 400 m hurdles final due to a false start.[7][8]

  1. ^ a b "Comité Ejecutivo del COPUR selecciona a Jaime Espinal abanderado Olímpico 2016" [COPUR's executive committee selected Jaime Espinal to be the flag bearer at the 2016 Olympics]. Puerto Rico Olympic Committee. 13 June 2016. Archived from the original on 14 June 2016.
  2. ^ "Puerto Rico viaja con 41 atletas a los Juegos Olímpicos de Río 2016" [Puerto Rico sends 41 athletes to the 2016 Rio Olympics]. El Diario La Prensa. 28 July 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  3. ^ "Puerto Rican Olympic Delegation Receives Island's Flag". Caribbean Business. 23 July 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Puerto Rico Shines at Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony". Caribbean Business. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  5. ^ "Monica Puig Makes Olympic History Winning Puerto Rico's First Gold Medal". NPR. 13 August 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  6. ^ "Rio Olympics: Monica Puig wins Puerto Rico's first ever gold". The Guardian. 13 August 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  7. ^ "Rafa Quintero logra 7ma posición en la final" [Rafa Quintero finished seventh in the final] (in Spanish). Puerto Rico: Telemundo. 20 August 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  8. ^ "Culson Disqualified in Olympics Finals". Caribbean Business. 18 August 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.