Puerto Rico at the 2008 Summer Olympics
| Puerto Rico at the 2008 Summer Olympics |
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| IOC code | PUR | ||||||||
| NOC | Puerto Rico Olympic Committee | ||||||||
| Website |
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| in Beijing | |||||||||
| Competitors | 22 in 8 sports | ||||||||
| Flag bearer | McWilliams Arroyo | ||||||||
| Medals |
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| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Puerto Rico competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics which was held in Beijing, People's Republic of China from August 8 to August 24, 2008. The American territory with a population of four million people qualified 22 athletes in eight different sports. The appearance of the Puerto Rican delegation at the Beijing Olympics marked the commonwealth's sixteenth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics, and its twenty-second appearance at any Olympic games, since its debut at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. Of its competitors participating in events that involve progression by heats, six athletes advanced at least one round in their events, and two advanced at least two rounds, with Asunción Ocasio almost medaling bronze in taekwondo. However, there were no Puerto Rican medalists at the Beijing Olympics. McWilliams Arroyo, a boxer, bore Puerto Rico's flag at the ceremonies.
Puerto Rico is a large island on the northern rim of the Caribbean Sea that is home to approximately 4 million people. It lies due east of the Dominican Republic and to the west of the United States Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico was first colonized by the Spanish, but was ceded to the United States in the wake of the Spanish–American War in 1898. Puerto Ricans were granted American citizenship in 1917, although it remained apart from the United States and has a constitution that provides for self-government. 41 years after Puerto Ricans became American citizens, Puerto Rico sent its first delegation to the Olympics at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. The American commonwealth has sent a delegation to all sixteen Summer Olympics between then and the 2008 Beijing Olympics in addition to six Winter Olympic games.
Between its 1948 debut and its arrival at the Beijing Olympics, Puerto Rican athletes had won six medals (one silver and five bronze). The last medal earned by a Puerto Rican was a bronze medal by Daniel Santos at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. No medals were won by Puerto Ricans at Beijing. During the course of the 2008 Olympics, 22 athletes represented Puerto Rico—17 men and five women—in eight sports (track and field, boxing, artistic gymnastics, judo, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, and weightlifting). The size of the delegation was 21 athletes smaller than the Puerto Rican delegation that arrived at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and 58 athletes smaller than Puerto Rico's largest Olympic team, which included 80 athletes participating in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal, Canada. The oldest member of the Beijing delegation was Lucas Bennazar, a sharpshooter, who was 39 years old at the time; boxer Jonathan González, in contrast, was the youngest at 19 years old. Boxer McWilliams Arroyo was the nation's flag bearer at the ceremonies.
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