page_title: Sports in Puerto Rico
section_title: Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in the Olympic Games
hierarchical_section_title: Sports in Puerto Rico / Modern era / Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in the Olympic Games
caption_attribution_description: Rio de Janeiro - Ginastas dos Estados Unidos levam medalha de ouro na disputa por equipes feminina nos Jogos Olímpicos Rio 2016, Rússia fica com a prata e China, o bronze. (Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil)
context_page_description: Sports in Puerto Rico can be traced from the ceremonial competitions amongst the pre-Columbian Native Americans of the Arawak tribes who inhabited the island to the modern era in which sports activities consist of an organized physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose for competition. One of the sports which the Taíno's played was a ball game called "Batey". The "Batey" was played in "U" shaped fields two teams; however, unlike the ball games of the modern era, the winners were treated like heroes and the losers were sacrificed.
  The Spanish Conquistadores who conquered the island introduced various sports such as horse racing, cockfighting, dominoes and a game similar to "Bowling" called "Boliche". The Spaniards however did not participate in team sports.
  Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States as a result of their defeat in the 1898 Spanish–American War. American soldiers who organized games as part of their training introduced the sport of Boxing and Basketball to the people of Puerto Rico.
context_section_description: Puerto Rico participates in the Olympics as an independent nation but because of Puerto Ricans having American citizenship, Puerto Rican athletes have the option of representing Puerto Rico or  moving to the United States, living there for 3 previous years or more and then representing that country in the games. Some Puerto Ricans, such as Gigi Fernández in tennis, have won gold medals for the U.S.
  The 1948 Summer Olympics celebrated in London, was a historical one for Puerto Rico because it was the first time that the island would participate as a nation in a major international sporting event. The island's delegation consisted of only three members, two of which finished among the ten best in pole vault. In their regional participations, the Puerto Ricans had carried the United States flag into the games. The United States protested, claiming that two nations could not use the same flag at the same time. The decree of Commonwealth on July 25, 1952 would give the Puerto Rican delegation a flag of their own.
  In 1980, the United States boycotted the Olympic Games in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Germán Rieckehoff, who was then the president of the Puerto Rican Olympic Committee, was against the boycott because he believed that politics should not get involved with sporting events. He was, therefore, denied economic support from the local government. Rieckehoff did however, manage to send one athlete to represent Puerto Rico in boxing, Alberto Mercado, who became the only American citizen to participate in the 1980 Olympics.
  In 1982, the Government of Puerto Rico, headed by then governor Carlos Romero Barceló, withheld economic support from the athletic delegation headed to Cuba, where the Central American and Caribbean Games were going to be held. The Puerto Rican Olympic Committee, under the leadership of Rieckehoff, had to appeal directly to the people for donations and were able to send the delegation. The Puerto Rican Olympic Committee is also the organization in charge of selecting the Puerto Rican athletes which represent the island in the Pan American Games and the Central American and Caribbean Games.
  The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the "XV Olympic Winter Games", was celebrated  in Calgary, Alberta, Canada between February 13 and 28. It was the first Winter Olympics ever held in Canada. It was also the first time that a Puerto Rican team was sent to represent the island in an Olympic ski competition. No Puerto Rican had ever skied in the Olympics. The six-person Puerto Rican ski team was made up of native Puerto Ricans. They were Félix Flechas, Walter Sandza, Kevin Wilson, his sister Mary Pat Wilson and Jason Edelmann. Mary Pat Wilson is Puerto Rico's first and only female Olympic skier. Even though the team did not do well in the competition, they were highly respected by their competitors.
  Kristina Brandi represented Puerto Rico in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. She became the first tennis player representing Puerto Rico to win a singles match in an Olympic when she beat Jelena Kostanić from Croatia (7–5 and 6–1). She lost in the second round to Russian Anastasia Myskina.
  At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Monica Puig made Olympic history when she became the first person to win an Olympic gold medal for Puerto Rico by defeating Germany's Angelique Kerber in the women's singles tennis final. She became the first Puerto Rican female medalist in any sport.
caption: Laurie Hernandez
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Rio de Janeiro - Ginastas dos Estados Unidos levam medalha de ouro na disputa por equipes feminina nos Jogos Ol\u00edmpicos Rio 2016, R\u00fassia fica com a prata e China, o bronze. (Fernando Fraz\u00e3o/Ag\u00eancia Brasil)", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 7D Mark II", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.4.7", "Image DateTime": "2016:08:10 08:47:56", "Image Artist": "Fernando Fraz\u00e3o/Ag\u00eancia Brasil", "Image Copyright": "EBC-EMPRESA BRASIL DE COMUNICA\u00c7\u00c3O/Ag\u00eancia Brasil. Uso sob a Licen\u00e7a Creative Commons Atribui\u00e7\u00e3o 3.0 Brasil. CR\u00c9DITO FOTOGR\u00c1FICO OBRIGAT\u00d3RIO: FERNANDO FRAZ\u00c3O/AG\u00caNCIA BRASIL", "Image ExifOffset": "650", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1138", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5631", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/800", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:08:09 18:45:13", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:08:09 18:45:13", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "602741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "45/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "135", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "93", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "93", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5472000/899", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "3648000/599", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}