Mexico swept the first stage of the 2025 Archery World Cup Series in Florida last week, winning six medals.
Their success follows Mexico’s historic bronze medal win at the 2024 Paris Olympics by its first-ever women’s Olympic archery team, and allowed archers Alejandra Valencia, Maya Becerra and Sebastián García to climb the international rankings.
After winning silver in Florida, two-time Olympic medalist Alejandra Valencia, from Sonora, rose to third place in the women’s recurve category, with 263 points, placing her just 6.25 points behind Casey Kaufhold of the United States.
Maya Becerra of Jalisco now ranks second in women’s compound rankings with 325.5 points, following her World Cup gold medal. Her defeat of American archer Olivia Dean in the singles final made Becerra a world champion for the second time. She currently sits 0.75 points behind the world number one, Britain’s Ella Gibson.
In the men’s competition, Sebastián García, of Coahuila, won silver, placing him in the Men’s Compound Top 10 for the first time, in ninth, with 188 points.
Rodrigo González, of Aguascalientes, came fifth in the individual Olympic round, narrowly missing a medal.
García, González and Luis Lezama placed fifth in the team competition over well-known archery powers, including South Korea, the United States and France. The trio demonstrated synchronicity and technical proficiency throughout the competition.
The women’s team, consisting of Becerra, Dafne Quintero and Mariana Bernal, defeated Italy 232-225 in the final. The archers maintained consistent scores throughout the match despite the sunny and windy weather conditions.
The second World Cup of the year runs May 6-11 in Shanghai, China.
Mexico: The rising star of the archery world
In the 2024 Paris Olympics, Alejandra Valencia, Ana Paula Vázquez and Ángela Ruiz took home bronze, making it the first-ever Mexican women’s archery team to win an Olympic medal.
It was also the fourth-ever Olympic medal for Mexican archers. Previously, Valencia and Luis Álvarez won a bronze in Mixed Team Archery at the 2020 Tokyo Games, while Aída Román won silver, and Mariana Avitia won bronze in the Women’s Individual Archery event at the 2012 London Games.
With reports from La Jornada Maya and El Sol del Centro
