| | |  Americas & Beyond | August 2008 
Mexico has Reason for Hope in Future Games
 Kevin Baxter - Los Angeles Times
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| | Maria del Rosario Espinoza won Mexico's fifth medal in taekwondo since it was added to the Games in 2000. Within a span of 72 hours, Guillermo Perez and Maria del Rosario Espinoza gave Mexico more gold medals than it had earned in the last five Olympics combined. (Michael Evans/EPA) | | |
Beijing - Paola Espinosa carried Mexico's flag in the opening ceremony, and for the first week and a half of the Beijing Games, she carried her country's Olympic hopes as well. Because through 12 days of competition, the bronze medal Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz won in synchronized platform diving was Mexico's only prize.
Then taekwondo started. And within the span of 72 hours, Guillermo Perez and Maria del Rosario Espinoza gave Mexico more gold medals than it had earned in the last five Olympics combined.
"It is a historic breakthrough," said Espinoza, who received a call of congratulations from Mexican President Felipe Calderon shortly after her victory Saturday in the women's heavyweight final.
A breakthrough that might have saved the jobs of quite a few people.
Mexico's disappointing performance early in the Games led to pointed criticism of the country's sports federation (CODEME) and the cabinet-level commission on sports (CONADE) headed by former national soccer team star Carlos Hermosillo.
"The problem . . . basically is the insufficient way that our sports authorities identify, prepare and support our athletes," wrote Julio Serrano in the national newspaper Milenio, which also reported accusations against the Mexican Olympic Committee, whose members were charged with giving preference to their families over the country's 80-plus athletes.
It's not the first time the Mexican sports hierarchy has been charged with ignoring its mandate. Former world champion sprinter Ana Guevara, who has been among the loudest critics, became so fed up she retired over the winter rather than compete in Beijing.
"We urgently need new people, qualified, with experience and above all honest and transparent," said German Silva, a two-time Olympic distance runner and now one of Mexico's top coaches.
The two golds in taekwondo helped soften that mood somewhat, although the three medals Mexico won in Beijing only matches the number it earned in Athens four years ago. And it's just half what Mexico won in Sydney eight years ago.
Only the 1968 team, which won nine medals - three of them gold - in Mexico City was more successful than the Sydney squad. The Mexicans didn't build on their Sydney success, though, which may be one reason three of the four medal winners in Beijing talked afterward about the future, not the past.
"I am super happy with the results I have been getting," said Espinoza, 21, of Sinaloa, whose medal was the fifth Mexico has won in taekwondo since it was added to the Games in 2000. "I am still young and I want to continue for me and for Mexico."
Flag-bearer Espinosa, who started diving at age 7 in Baja, was thinking of the future too. But she was also celebrating Beijing, which she called a phenomenal experience.
"I'm very happy that my country had confidence in me," Espinosa, a two-time Olympian, said after finishing fourth in the individual platform event. "I carried my country's flag. I won the first medal for Mexico. We were the first women to win a medal for Mexico in diving.
"For me, it was a really good experience. This simply inspired me and gave me the will to keep training because I feel like I'm close."
Perez, however, may have said it best after beating Yulis Mercedes of the Dominican Republic in a controversial flyweight match when he suggested his win might lift the malaise that has enveloped Mexican sports.
"This is a dream come true and I've worked hard for a long time for it," said Perez, 28, who trains in the west-central state of Michoacan. "I've practiced the sport for 23 years. I missed out in Sydney because I was very young and in Athens because of injury. I struggled and I fought [and] overcame many obstacles.
"I hope this success will inspire the Mexican delegation and the Mexican people to show that dreams indeed come true."
kevin.baxter(at)latimes.com |
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