"I'm quite happy right now. I'm happy to be the person who did it," runner Jasmine Camacho-Quinn told the Reuters news agency, crying with joy, after winning gold for Puerto Rico at the Tokyo Olympics.
Camacho-Quinn, 24, reached the finish line first on Monday in the 100-meter hurdles,
getting the second gold medal in Puerto Rico's history and the first in athletics.
After the feat, the Olympic champion hugged her teammates on the track, ecstatic, and went to the stands, where amid applause they handed her a Puerto Rican flag with which she covered herself.
Already on the podium for the award ceremony, while crying and with the traditional Flor de Maga of the island in her hairstyle, she received the gold medal when the Puerto Rican anthem sounded.
“It means a lot, this year I have trained very hard, I didn't have a coach and I was alone.
So every time I go out to the field I give everything I have.
This is what I wanted this year, I wanted to be a gold medalist and I have manifested it, I have made it happen, ”said Camacho-Quinn.
The athlete finished in 12.37 seconds
, beating American runner Keni Harrison, who broke the world record in London with a time of 12.20 seconds in 2016.
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But he confessed to a journalist from the aforementioned agency that he
was about to fall in the final stretch
, as happened in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“I was really running for the record, I hit the obstacle, but everything happens for a reason.
I crossed the line and thought: 'wait, I just won,' he said.
Five years earlier, the athlete, then only 19 years old, had lost the opportunity to be on the podium after tripping over the hurdles, falling in tears on the track.
This year, he not only took gold, but broke the Olympic record in the semi-finals of the event.
He is the second person to win a gold medal for the Caribbean island,
a US territory that has nevertheless competed independently since 1948
.
Tennis player Mónica Puig won the first Puerto Rican gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
He graduated from the University of Kentucky, where he became a promising young athlete, and grew up in the American South Camacho-Quinn.
So she could have competed for the United States, but she decided to represent Puerto Rico, where her mother is originally from.
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“I came for you [Puerto Rico], I came for my mother. I was able to meet my grandmother (who passed away last year), I was able to meet her and I always wanted that.
I got close to one of my cousins, Johnny, and met my family.
On my mother's side, ”he said.
Her mother, María Milagros Camacho, watched her win from a restaurant in South Carolina, where the family resides, our sister network
NBC News reported
.
His brother, also an athlete, is a professional football player for the Chicago Bears.
“I can't believe I have an Olympic champion daughter. A daughter with an Olympic record.
When you stay focused and do what you have to do, without distractions, you can achieve anything, "the woman told the newspaper El Nuevo Día.
Puerto Rican athlete Jasmine Camacho Quinn, Olympic champion of the 100 meters hurdles in Tokyo, on August 2, 2021.AP
The displays of affection on social networks showered for Camacho-Quinn
.
“Thank you for wanting to represent Puerto Rico to honor your mother!
Having honored her, you honor us millions of Puerto Ricans who shouted the most we could when you won the gold for yourself, for your mother and for that little island in the Caribbean.
Get ready to receive all our love, ”wrote a Twitter user in English.
"It means a lot to represent such a small country
,
"
said the Olympic champion after her victory, with the Puerto Rican flag on her shoulders.
"This gives young people hope," he emphasized, as reported by the
Miami Herald
newspaper
.