Gymnast Ángel Barajas has caused a surprise in Paris on Monday. The 17-year-old from Cúcuta took silver in the high bar final at the Bercy Arena and gave Colombia its first medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. His Olympic medal is also the first in the history of artistic gymnastics in the South American country.
The athlete qualified for the final on July 27, after finishing sixth in the first event and securing one of the eight places. At that time, the Ministry of Sport assessed that the strategy of the coach, Jairo Ruiz, had “borne fruit” in having the gymnast focus only on two categories: high bar and parallel bars (in that competition, he failed to secure a place in the final).
This Monday, Barajas surprised everyone with the speed of his movements and collected 14,533 points in his presentation. It is the same number obtained by the Japanese Shinnosuke Oka, who took first place by beating Barajas in the execution section – priority is given over difficulty, in which the Colombian won. Both benefited from the fact that the other participants had several falls and mistakes in their movements.
The man from Cúcuta was not on the list of Colombians who were candidates to win medals at these Olympic Games. His young age and limited experience in international circuits did not raise high expectations. However, he has given the first great joy to a Colombia that has become skeptical about these Olympic Games. After his achievement, he has expressed his satisfaction in statements to the media. “It makes me very happy to know that I made history in my country at my young age,” he stressed. “There were mistakes, I failed to do an exercise that I feel could have helped me to win gold. But even so, I feel very happy. I did a great job and that is what matters,” he added.
This is the 35th medal for the South American country since its participation in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Historically, Colombia has stood out in the disciplines of weightlifting, BMX cycling and triple jump.
From ‘LazyTown’ to the Olympic medal
Angélica Vivas, the medalist’s mother, has said on several occasions that Barajas began to get excited about gymnastics when he was four years old and saw LazyTowna children’s series created by the acrobatics champion Magnús Scheving. The boy asked for apples to do tricks like Sportacus, the protagonist, and he practiced somersaults between cupboards and mattresses. A few years later, a neighbour convinced the mother that her son had talent and that she should take him to train at the local coliseum. He, for his part, was not enthusiastic at first. “I went, but I didn’t like it. It was only girls who trained and that’s why I didn’t go back. But then I came back and continued doing it,” he commented in an interview with Time which references the Olympic Games website.
With this medal, the gymnast consolidates a history of precocious victories. He was a medalist at the 2019 Bolívar National Games, at just 13 years old; he won seven gold medals at the 2022 Rosario South American Youth Games; and he won two gold medals, one silver and one bronze at the 2023 World Youth Gymnastics Championships. The International Gymnastics Federation described him last year as “the most fascinating gymnast to emerge from a South American country in recent years.”
In an interview with the media, the medallist dedicated his Olympic achievement to his mother and Colombia. “It makes me happy to see that all the effort that we have both made during all this time is now bearing fruit,” he said. Also, in response to a question from journalists, he thanked the gymnasts Jossimar Calvo and Jorge Hugo Giraldo for the advice they have given him. Both are references in this sport in Colombia, but had never managed to reach the Olympic podium. Calvo, for his part, told Caracol Radio that he followed the final with family and friends of the medallist in Cúcuta. “Ángel was very mature at 17 years old (…). He is an extraordinary gymnast, he is at the competitive level of world medallists,” he stressed.
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