Ángel Barajas

Ángel Gabriel Barajas Vivas (born August 12, 2006) is a Colombian artistic gymnast. He is the first Colombian gymnast to win an Olympic medal, earning a silver medal on the horizontal bar at the 2024 Olympic Games. Barajas is also the 2022 South American Youth Games champion and the 2023 Junior World all-around silver medalist.
Barajas was born in Cúcuta, Norte de Santander, to Angélica María Vivas and Wilson Barajas. He has two older siblings. His father left the family when Barajas was six years old. He attends the Church of God Ministry of Jesus Christ International.
When Barajas was three years old, he began imitating Sportacus, a character from the Icelandic television show LazyTown, who performed flashy handstands and backflips on the show.
Barajas began gymnastics training when he was five years old, at a local club in Cúcuta. His older brother, Jeisson, worked two jobs to pay for Barajas' gymnastics training.
Since 2018, Barajas has been training with the Norte de Santander Gymnastics League alongside gymnasts like Jossimar Calvo. In 2019 Barajas joined the Colombian Sports Ministry's Athletic Excellence program, which paid him a monthly salary.
In 2021, Barajas competed at the Junior Pan American Championships, where he helped Colombia secure second place as a team. Individually, he won bronze medals in the all-around, floor exercise, and horizontal bar, and he claimed gold on the pommel horse.
In late April, Barajas participated in the South American Youth Games, leading Colombia to team gold. He individually won gold in six of the seven events, missing out only on rings. In July, at the Pan American Championships, he helped Colombia finish fourth as a team. Individually, he won gold on the horizontal bar, silver in the all-around, floor exercise, and vault, and bronze on parallel bars.
In late March, Barajas competed at the second Junior World Championships as the lone male Colombian delegate. On the first day, he qualified for the all-around final in first place and also made it to the finals for floor exercise, parallel bars, and horizontal bar. In the all-around final, he won silver, finishing behind Qin Guohuan of China. In the apparatus finals, Barajas secured gold medals on floor exercise and parallel bars, and a bronze on horizontal bar. With four medals, he left Antalya as the most decorated athlete.
Barajas became eligible for senior competition in 2024. He made his senior debut at the Cairo World Cup in mid-February, where he qualified for the parallel bars and horizontal bar finals. He won bronze on the horizontal bar, finishing behind Tang Chia-hung and Joe Fraser, and placed eighth on parallel bars. At the conclusion of the World Cup series, Barajas earned an individual Olympic berth for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
At the Olympic Games, Barajas competed in the parallel bars and horizontal bar. During qualifications, he qualified for the horizontal bar final and was the third reserve for the parallel bars final. On the final day of competition for artistic gymnastics, Barajas scored 14.533 on the horizontal bar—the highest score of the day. However, he lost the execution score tie-breaker to Shinnosuke Oka, earning the silver medal. This achievement made Barajas the first Colombian gymnast to win an Olympic medal.
After winning the Olympic silver medal, Barajas was awarded a full scholarship to attend the University of Santander and was also given an apartment in Cúcuta. For his Olympic feat Barajas was named Athlete of the Year by the Colombian Olympic Committee.