Melissa Gonzalez (born 24 June 1994) is a

Colombian-American Colombian Americans ( es, Colomboestadounidenses), are Americans who trace their ancestry to Colombia. The word may refer to someone born in the United States of full or partial Colombian descent or to someone who has immigrated to the United St ...

athlete specializing in the

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

. Born in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

, she holds dual citizenship due to her father's Colombian origin, and she elected to represent Colombia in international competition. She won a gold medal at the

South American Championships South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

in 2019 where she also broke the 25 year old national record in the event. Gonzalez won a silver medal at the

2018 South American Games The 2018 South American Games was a multi-sport event that took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It was the 11th edition of the ODESUR South American Games. A total of 373 sporting events are scheduled to be contested across a variety of sports. B ...

and two medals at the 2017 South American Championships. Her personal best is 55.32 seconds set in the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. Gonzalez is married to

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player

David Blough David Marshall Blough (born July 31, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He was Purdue's backup quarterback in 2015 and led the Boilermakers to a win against Nebraska. As a r ...

. Her younger brother,

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

, also plays the sport.

International competitions

Personal life

Gonzalez is a

. She married American football

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

in March 2019. Her father Hector is 6-foot-9 and played college basketball at the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

before playing

semiprofession A semiprofession is an occupation that requires advanced knowledge and skills but is not widely regarded as a true profession. Traditional examples of semiprofessions include social work, journalism, librarianship, teaching and nursing. Such fi ...

ally in Colombia. She has two sisters, Samatha and Lily, and a brother,

. Samatha also represents Colombia in international events and was a college All-American in the

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap. It is traditionally the final event of a track meet. At top class events, th ...

at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

, while Christian played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

Colorado Buffaloes The Colorado Buffaloes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Colorado. The university sponsors 17 varsity sports teams. Both the men's and women's teams are called the Buffaloes (Buffs for short) or, rarely, the Golden Buffalo ...

and Oregon Ducks.

References

External links

* 1994 births Living people Colombian female hurdlers Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 South American Games South American Games gold medalists for Colombia South American Games silver medalists for Colombia South American Games medalists in athletics Central American and Caribbean Games bronze medalists for Colombia Competitors at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games competitors for Colombia South American Championships in Athletics winners Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in athletics Texas Longhorns women's track and field athletes South American Games gold medalists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Colombia Track and field athletes from Texas {{Colombia-athletics-bio-stub