Mexico’s Olympic athletes for the 2024 Paris Games were announced this week, and, for the first time, the majority will be women.
Fifty-two female athletes are on the Mexican Olympic team headed to France in July, and they’ll be joined by 36 male athletes. The 88 competitors in total will compete under the green, white and red flag in 27 events this summer, eager to best Mexico’s haul of just four bronze medals at the previous Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Although the Mexican Olympic Committee is hopeful that a few additional athletes will qualify before the June 15 deadline, to boost the total number of competitors to 95, the number on this summer’s team pales in comparison to Mexico’s recent rosters.
Mexico sent 162 athletes to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 125 to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
This year’s squad of athletes will be the smallest Mexico sends to the Summer Olympics since 2008, when 85 competitors (43 men and 42 women) qualified for the Beijing Games. The main reason for the slim numbers is that Mexico’s men’s and women’s soccer teams failed to qualify.
Overall, Mexico’s athletes have won 73 medals at the Summer Olympics since participating in the 1900 Paris Games. Mexico did not send a team to the Olympics again until 1924 and has participated in every Summer Olympics since then.
Mexico didn’t send women to the Olympics until the 1932 Games in Los Angeles.
Mexico’s Olympic athletes in the 2024 Paris Games
Artistic Gymnastics: Alexa Moreno (in her third Olympic Games), Ahtziri Sandoval and Natalia Escalera
Mexican gymnast Natalia Escalera will be part of Mexico’s Artistic Gymnastics team at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer. Here she competes on the vault at the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile.
Diving: Gabriela Agúndez (bronze medal winner at the 2022 Tokyo Games), Alejandra Orozco (silver medalist at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and in her fourth Olympics) and Aranza Vázquez, also a second-time Olympic athlete for Mexico.
Rhythmic Gymnastics (team): Julia Gutiérrez, Ana Flores, Kimberly Salazar, Adirem Tejeda y Dalia Alcocer
Cycling Track (team and individual): Jessica Salazar, Luz Daniela Gaxiola and Yuli Verdugo (in her second Olympic Games)
Cycling Road: Andrea Ramírez Fregoso (in her second Olympic Games)
Track & Field: Citlali Moscote, Alegna González (a second-time Olympic athlete) Laura Galván and Margarita Hernández (also in her second Olympic Games)
Canoeing: Sofía Reinoso (in the individual kayak competition)
Weightlifting: Janeth Gómez (in the 59 kilogram weight category)
Rowing: Kenia Lechuga (in the single scull event; Lechuga’s is a third-time Olympic athlete for Mexico).
Taekwondo: Daniela Souza (in the 49 kilogram weight category)
Table Tennis: Arantxa Cossío (the first table tennis player born in Mexico to represent Mexico at the Olympics)
Archery (team and individual): Aída Román (silver medalist at the 2012 London Games), Alejandra Valencia (bronze medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Games) and Ángela Ruiz, a 17-year-old who with Valencia and Román won the gold medal at Stage 1 of the 2023 World Archery Cup in Antalya, Turkey.
Valencia has continued to bring home medals at the 2024 World Archery Cup during Stage 2 last month in Yecheon, South Korea: she took the women’s bronze medal for the recurve bow and won gold in the mixed-team recurve event.
Artistic Swimming (duet): Nuria Diosdado (competing in her third Olympic Games) and Joana Jiménez
Marathon Swimming: Martha Sandoval (an open-water, 10-kilometer swimming event)
Triathlon: Rosa Tapia and Lizeth Rueda (in individual triathlon and team triathlon)
Sailing: Mariana Aguilar Chávez Peón and Elena Oetling
Shooting: Gabriela Rodríguez and Alejandra Zavala
With reports from Aristegui Noticias and TV Azteca
