At the age of 16, Gustavo Envela was the youngest person to represent Equatorial Guinea at the Los Angeles Games. He was drawn to compete in the eighth heat of the first round in the men's 100 metres on 3 August. Envela placed fifth out of eight sprinters with a time of 10.79 seconds. Since the top three in a heat, plus the next six overall fastest athletes progressed to the second round, that was the end of his participation in the men's 100 metres. Three days later, Envela took part in the first round of the men's 200 metres and was assigned heat eight along with seven other runners. He finished this race in a time of 22.14 seconds, which was seventh out of eight competitors. This was not sufficient for Envela to advance to the second round. Envela would go on to compete for Equatorial Guinea in the next three Summer Olympics and became a political activist after retiring.