Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

competed at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's eighteenth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics. The

Puerto Rico Olympic Committee The Puerto Rico Olympic Committee (COPUR, es, Comité Olímpico de Puerto Rico) is the National Olympic Committee for Puerto Rico. It oversees Olympic-sports in Puerto Rico, and selects the Olympic team which represents the island. It was founde ...

( es, 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. 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. Of the 40 participants, twenty-nine of them made their Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, including table tennis players

Brian Afanador Brian O'Neill Afanador Pérez (born March 6, 1997) is a Puerto Rican table tennis player. On April 2, 2016, Afanador made history becoming the first Puerto Rican male table tennis player to qualify for the Olympic Games. On June 3, 2016, Afan ...

and 15-year-old Adriana Diaz, tennis player

Monica Puig Monica Puig Marchán, (born September 27, 1993) is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. She is the first Puerto Rican in history to win a gold medal at the Olympics while representing Puerto Rico, having done so in 2016 at the ...

, 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 Vanessa García Vega (born July 18, 1984 in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) is an Olympic and National Record holding freestyle swimmer from Puerto Rico. She swam for her native country at the 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics. García's silver m ...

, 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. The most successful athlete of the previous Games, Espinal was selected to lead his delegation as the flag bearer in the opening ceremony. 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 Angelique Kerber (; born 18 January 1988) is a German professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 1, for a total of 34 weeks, and won three major titles at the 2016 Australian Open, the 2016 US Open, and the 2018 Wim ...

in the final of the women's singles tournament. Two Puerto Rican athletes, however, came closest to join Puig on the podium: platform diver

Rafael Quintero Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero Ibaria (September 16, 1940 – October 1, 2006) was a CIA operative. Biography Quintero was born in Camagüey, Cuba on September 16, 1940. In the 1950s, he joined the resistance movement against Cuban dictator Fulge ...

, 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.

Medalists

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Athletics (track and field)

Puerto Rican athletes achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event): ;Track & road events ;Men ;Women ;Field events ;Combined events –

Women's heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

Boxing

Puerto Rico entered one boxer to compete in the men's flyweight division into the Olympic boxing tournament. 2012 Olympian

Jeyvier Cintrón Jeyvier Jesús Cintrón Ocasio (born February 8, 1995) is a Puerto Rican professional boxer who challenged for the WBO junior bantamweight title in 2019. As an amateur, Cintrón represented Puerto Rico at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics as a flywei ...

had claimed his Olympic spot by finishing among the top two boxers in the World Series of Boxing.

Cycling

Road

Puerto Rico was invited by the

International Cycling Union The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland. The UCI issues racing ...

to enter one rider in the men's Olympic road race by virtue of his overall individual ranking in the

2015 UCI America Tour The 2015 UCI America Tour was the eleventh season for the UCI America Tour. The season began on 9 January 2015 with the Vuelta al Táchira and ended on 25 December 2015 with the Vuelta a Costa Rica. The points leader, based on the cumulative resul ...

, and by occupying one of the four unused berths from the

2015 UCI World Tour The 2015 UCI World Tour was the seventh edition of the ranking system launched by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in 2009. The series started with the opening stage of the Tour Down Under on 20 January, and concluded with Il Lombardia on 4 ...

, signifying the nation's return to the sport for the first time since

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Diving

Puerto Rico has entered one diver into the Olympic competition by virtue of a top 18 finish at the 2016 FINA World Cup series.

Equestrian

Puerto Rico has entered one eventing rider into the Olympic equestrian competition by virtue of a top two finish from a combined group of North, Central, & South America in the individual FEI Olympic rankings. This signified the nation's Olympic return to the sport of equestrian for the first time since

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Eventing

Judo

Puerto Rico has qualified two judokas for each of the following weight classes at the Games. London 2012 Olympian Melissa Mojica was ranked among the top 14 eligible judokas for women in the IJF World Ranking List of May 30, 2016, while María Pérez at women's middleweight (70 kg) earned a continental quota spot from the Pan American region, as the highest-ranked Puerto Rican judoka outside of direct qualifying position.

Shooting

Puerto Rico has qualified one shooter to compete in the women's rifle events by virtue of her best finish at the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

, as long as she obtained a minimum qualifying score (MQS) by March 31, 2016. Qualification Legend: Q = Qualify for the next round; q = Qualify for the bronze medal (shotgun)

Swimming

Puerto Rican swimmers have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following events (up to a maximum of 2 swimmers in each event at the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT), and potentially 1 at the Olympic Selection Time (OST)):

Table tennis

Puerto Rico has entered two athletes into the table tennis competition at the Games.

and 15-year-old Adriana Diaz secured their Olympic spots in the men's and women's singles, respectively by virtue of their top six finish at the 2016 Latin American Qualification Tournament in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Taekwondo

Puerto Rico entered one athlete into the taekwondo competition at the Olympics for the first time since

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. Crystal Weekes secured a spot in the women's heavyweight category (+67 kg) by virtue of her top two finish at the 2016 Pan American Qualification Tournament in

Aguascalientes Aguascalientes (; ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Aguascalientes ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Aguascalientes), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. At 22°N and ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Tennis

Puerto Rico has entered one tennis player into the Olympic tournament, signifying the nation's comeback to the sport for the first time since 2004.

(world no. 43) qualified directly for the women's singles as one of the top 56 eligible players in the WTA World Rankings as of June 6, 2016.

Triathlon

Puerto Rico has received a spare berth freed up by one of the Germans to send London 2012 Olympian

Manuel Huerta Manuel "Manny" Huerta (born March 22, 1984), is a Cuban-born triathlete. After emigrating from Cuba to the United States as a young man, Huerta began training as a professional triathlete. For the United States he won the silver medal in men's tr ...

to the men's Olympic triathlon as the next highest-ranked individual, not yet qualified, in the ITU Olympic Qualification List as of May 15, 2016, signifying the nation's debut in the sport.

Volleyball

Indoor

Women's tournament

Puerto Rico women's volleyball team qualified for the Olympics by scoring a first-place triumph and securing a lone outright berth at the final meet of the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

. ;Team roster ;Group play ---- ---- ---- ----

Weightlifting

Puerto Rico has qualified one female weightlifter for the Rio Olympics by virtue of a top four national finish at the 2016 Pan American Championships. The team must allocate this place by June 20, 2016.

Wrestling

Puerto Rico has qualified two wrestlers for each of the following weight classes into the Olympic competition, as a result of their semifinal triumphs at the 2016 Pan American Qualification Tournament. ;Men's freestyle

References

External links

* {{Country at games navbox, Puerto Rico, Olympics Nations at the 2016 Summer Olympics

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

2016 in Puerto Rican sports