Mariana Avitia Martínez (born September 18, 1993) is a Mexican recurve

archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern ...

. She was the first Mexican to win an Olympic medal in archery after taking bronze in the women's individual event at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. She is also the youngest Mexican athlete to compete in two Olympic Games, contesting both the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

and

2010 Summer Youth Olympics The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, ) officially known as the I Summer Youth Olympic Games, and commonly known as Singapore 2010, were the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an Olympic Games-based event for young athletes. Held ...

by the age of seventeen. Avitia has represented Mexico at international archery events since 2007. In addition to her Olympic medal she has also achieved medals at the

2017 World Archery Championships The 2017 World Archery Championships was the 49th edition of the event. It was held in Mexico City, Mexico from 15 to 22 October 2017 and was organised by World Archery Federation (formerly known as FITA). Qualification and elimination rounds t ...

and the 2011 and 2019

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

Career

Avitia was first introduced to archery at age seven. She competed in the

2007 Pan American Games The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Rio 2007, were a major Americas, continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, finishing in 10th overall.

2008–2011: Olympic debut

At aged 14, Avitia entered

as the youngest member of the Mexican Olympic team. She finished the initial 72-arrow ranking round of the women's individual event with a total of 641 points — five fewer than teammate

Aída Román Aída Nabila Román Arroyo (born May 21, 1988) is a Mexican archer. A three-time Olympian, she won silver medal in the women's individual event at the 2012 Summer Olympics and was the women's World Indoor Archery Champion in 2014. She has addi ...

— giving her the 20th seed for the knock-out rounds of the tournament. Avitia began her head-to-head matches strongly with victories over North Korea's Son Hye-Yong, Poland's Malgorzata Cwienczek, and Georgia's Khatuna Narimanidze in the first three elimination rounds, the latter result being described as an upset by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. With Román's defeat in the third round to North Korea's Kwon Un-sil, Avitia advanced to the quarter-finals as the sole Mexican left in the women's competition. Facing Kwon in her quarter-final match, which took place in wet conditions, Avitia lost the twelve-arrow contest by 105

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

to 99. Avitia won five medals at the

2010 Central American and Caribbean Games The 21st Central American and Caribbean Games (Spanish: ''XXI Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe, Mayagüez 2010'') took place in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, from 18 July 2010 to 1 August 2010. Bid It was understood that Mayagüez was going to b ...

, and her participation at the

shortly afterwards made Avitia Mexico's youngest athlete to compete in two Olympic games. She narrowly missed out on a medal result, being eliminated by eventual winner Kwak Ye-ji of South Korea in the semi-finals and losing to Russia's Tatiana Segina in the bronze medal contest. Because of her performances in the preceding years Avitia was recognised as one of the strongest competitors at the

2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games () and commonly known as Guadalajara 2011, were an international multi-sport event held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby c ...

and a challenger for the women's individual gold medal. She was however eliminated in the second round of the individual competition, although she did succeed in winning the women's team gold medal with Román and Alejandra Valencia.

2012: Olympic medalist

Avitia was re-selected for the Mexican team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, entering the women's individual and women's team events alongside

and Alejandra Valencia. Scoring 659 points in the 72-arrow ranking round, Avitia earned the tenth seed for the individual competition, and combined with her teammates, the fourth seed for the team event. Her Olympic competition did not begin well with the trio eliminated from the team competition at the quarter-final stage. She however had more success in the individual event, winning her first four matches – including a surprise victory over South Korea's

Lee Sung-jin Lee Sung-jin (; born March 7, 1985) is a recurve archer from South Korea. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, winning in the women's team event at the 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics. In 2005, she became the women's individual recurve cha ...

, the second seed and a gold medalist in the team competition – before losing to Román in the semi-finals. As the two losing archers from the semi-final, Avitia faced Khatuna Lorig of the United States in the bronze medal match. In difficult conditions which saw unpredictable wind gusts, Avitia overcame the five-time Olympian to win her maiden Olympic medal, her bronze and Román's silver in the final securing Mexico's first ever archery Olympic medals. The pair's success marked the first time since the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

that Mexican athletes had shared the podium in any Olympic discipline, and the first time it had been achieved by Mexican women.

2013–2016: International break

Following the 2012 Olympics up to the end of 2015, Avitia prioritised her university studies and life outside of sport over competitive archery. Although her overall form was not consistent enough to be chosen to compete at the

2014 Central American and Caribbean Games The 22nd Central American and Caribbean Games were held November 14–30, 2014 in Veracruz, Mexico.Sport page< ...

or the

2015 Pan American Games The 2015 Pan American Games (), officially the XVII Pan American Games () and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am Games (Toronto 2015), were a major international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Pan American Games, ...

, she nevertheless won the Mexican national championship in 2015 with victory over Aída Román in the final. In early 2016 she was unsuccessful in her bid to win selection for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

at the national team trials.

2017–2019: Team silver medals

Avitia returned to the national team in 2017 and participated in the

World Archery Championships The World Archery Championships are a series of competitions in Archery organised by the World Archery Federation. The first competition held under that title took place in 1931. Competition archery takes a wide variety of formats, but the titl ...

taking place on home soil in

México City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. Although she did not advance beyond the third round in the women's individual event, she and teammates Aída Román and Alejandra Valencia reached the final of the women's team competition to face the reigning champions South Korea. Despite a strong start the trio were unable to overcome the South Koreans, who recorded their thirteenth title in the women's team discipline. Avitia, Román, and Valencia received silver medals as runners-up. A mixed 2018 followed for Avitia, as she failed to achieve selection for the

2018 Central American and Caribbean Games The 23rd Central American and Caribbean Games were held in Barranquilla, Colombia. Asamblea ODECABE, Islas Caimán' (translation: "CASCO Assembly, Cayman Islands"). Published by CACSO on 2012-10-27; retrieved 2012-11-13. Bidding process Quet ...

in March – only entering the competition as the Mexican team's reserve behind Román, Valencia, and Ana Paula Vázquez – before helping win silver medal in the women's team event of August's Pan American Archery Championships in Medellin. In 2019 Avitia was she successfully re-selected to the national team, her third place in the national trials being rewarded with entries for the year's World Archery Championship in June and

in August. She however had a disappointing World Championships when she, Román and Valencia were eliminated from the team competition prior to the quarter-final stage, a loss that ended Mexico's chances of qualifying for the women's team event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. The Pan American Games two months later saw Avitia contributing to another women's team silver medal and achieving Mexico's 134th medal of the games, a new national record.

References

External links