By The Star Staff
The Puerto Rico Olympic Committee (COPUR by its Spanish acronym) reported on Sunday the official integration of María Pérez and Adrián Gandía as the 31st and 32nd athletes in the Puerto Rico delegation for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The two judo athletes were part of the announcement made early in the morning that skateboarder Steven Piñeiro will be competing in his second Games.
Pérez and Gandía, both Tokyo 2020 Olympians, earned their Olympic ticket for Paris through the continental quota granted by the International Judo Federation.
This marks the third Olympic Games for Pérez, the standard bearer of the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. The Carolinian made her Olympic debut in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 edition and qualified again for Tokyo 2020. Now she will make her stop in Paris.
Gandía, meanwhile, is going to his second Games. Before Tokyo 2020, the Trujillo Alto native competed in the Nanjing 2018 edition of the Youth Olympic Games.
Judo is one of the disciplines in which Puerto Rico has had consecutive Olympic representation since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Piñeiro, the skateboarder from Toa Baja, fulfilled his promise to compete in his second consecutive Olympic Games after qualifying for the world ranking in the park modality at a qualifier held over the weekend in Budapest, Hungary.
COPUR is waiting for possible additional qualifications in beach volleyball, 5×5 basketball, swimming and track & field.
Below is the list of the Puerto Rico Paris 2024 delegation, to date:
Jasmine Camacho Quinn (Track & Field), Sebastián Rivera (Wrestling), Ashleyann Lozada (Boxing), Pedro Luis Fernández (Sailing), Maycey Vieta (Diving), Emanuel Vázquez (Diving), Women’s Basketball Team (12 players), Darian Cruz (Wrestling), Ethan Ramos (Wrestling), Jonovan Smith (Wrestling), Juanma López Jr. (Boxing), Alondra Rivera (Archery), Ayden Owens (Track & Field), Adriana Díaz (Table Tennis), Rafael Campos (Golf), Brian Afanador (Table Tennis), Daniel González (Table Tennis), Yarimar Mercado (Three-Position Rifle Shooting), Steven Piñeiro (Skateboarding), María Pérez (Judo), Adrián Gandía (Judo).
The Olympic Games will take place from July 26 to Aug. 11 in Paris.