Chilean shooter Francisca Crovetto (34 years old, Santiago) won this Sunday the first gold medal for Chile at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the third such award for the South American country in history. The athlete managed to make history as the first woman to win the top medal after beating Britain’s Jo Amber Rutter in a dizzying skeet shooting duel. Her achievement broke 16 years without a Chilean athlete reaching the podium in the five-ring competition and two decades of gold drought, since tennis players Fernando González and Nicolás Massú in Athens 2004. Crovetto is also the second Chilean woman with a medal after Marlene Ahrens (1933-2022), who won a historic silver medal in the javelin throw in Melbourne 1956.
The Chilean expressed her happiness and reviewed the long road she traveled to achieve the Olympic title. “I am so happy, it is a dream, I dreamed in 2004 of being in the Olympic Games. I have no words, I am living the dream of the Fran As a child, I saw how Fernando [González] and Nico [Massú] “They inspired me 20 years ago and I felt how all of Chile supported me to get this medal,” said Crovetto in an interview with Chilevisión just after the competition. The athlete also expressed her opinion through a video released by the Team Chilethe Chilean multi-sport team. “Dreams come true, work hard for it,” he said.
These are the fourth Olympic Games in which Crovetto has participated. In those held in London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo – where she was the Chilean flag bearer alongside volleyball player Marco Grimalt – she had been left out of the final. When the skeet shooting specialist won the first gold medal for the Chilean team in Santiago 2023, where she beat Mexican Gabriela Rodríguez in a tight final round, she said: “My dream is to be an Olympic medalist, I have always said that.”
President Gabriel Boric has celebrated the athlete’s triumph in her fourth Olympic Games on social media: “Gold medal for Chile! What pride and emotion the work and professionalism of Francisca Crovetto in the shooting field. Thank you for honoring our country and giving us this tremendous joy in Paris 2024! Giant, Fran, historic!” The shooter is part of the largest Chilean delegation in its history (48 athletes), not counting the team sports where she failed to qualify.
Crovetto, originally from the popular municipality of San Miguel, in the Chilean capital, has served as president of the Association of High Performance Athletes of Chile (DAR Chile) and was elected captain of the Team Chileby her own teammates. “Our extraordinary Francisca Crovetto entered the history of Chilean sport, after giving the country Chile its first Olympic medal in 16 years,” published this morning the Team Chile, The name given to the selection of Chilean athletes who practice Olympic disciplines. “In the final, she demonstrated all her quality and mental strength to get among the best in the world and climb onto the podium she had dreamed of so much,” added the organization.
The last time a Chilean athlete reached the podium of the Olympic Games was in Beijing 2008, when tennis player Fernando González won a silver medal after losing in the final to Spaniard Rafael Nadal. Since then, the members of the Team Chile They only came close to winning the medals. Some figures such as gymnast Tomás González (London 2012) and golfer Guillermo Pereira (Tokyo 2020) came close to winning Olympic bronze.
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