Rio de Janeiro: Monica Puig hopes her landmark Olympic gold medal for Puerto Rico will be an inspiration for Latin American women, even if she may struggle to compete with the island’s boxers, baseball players ... and Ricky Martin.
Puig made history on Saturday when she defeated Australian Open champion and world No. 2 Angelique Kerber 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the women’s tennis singles final.
It was a first gold for the US territory to add to the island’s modest previous haul of two silver and six bronze.
She is also the first Puerto Rican woman to medal at an Olympics.
The title charge was a surprise for a player ranked at 34 in the world and who came into Rio on the back of a couple of first round losses, at Wimbledon and Montreal where she was even defeated by a qualifier.
“I’m really proud to represent Latin America and I hope this can be an inspiration to all Latin women that everything can be done in this life,” said Puig.
In the aftermath of her victory, she struggled with the words of the Puerto Rico national anthem, admitting that her father Jose had emailed her the lyrics in the morning.
Despite being born in San Juan, Puig has spent most of her life in Miami and her pronounced American accent masks any trace of her roots.
In a way, Puig’s win served to highlight the Caribbean island’s standing in the world order. It is a US territory, but not a state.
She is also technically not the first Puerto Rican gold medallist.
Gigi Fernandez was also born in San Juan but when she was a gold medallist in doubles in 1992 and 1996, she was playing under the US flag.
“Gigi congratulated me, she’s an inspiration,” said Puig.
“Anyone who gets a medal is inspiring. But I’m just so happy to be the first Puerto Rican woman to win gold.”
She added: “I always have been 100% loyal to where I was born and the roots I was raised in. I still have family in Puerto Rico and I have been back to visit quite a lot.
“That island has given me so much. So much love and support throughout my career and I just wanted this one for them.”
On Friday, after beating two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the semi-finals, Puig had vowed to win gold and bring some light relief to the island which has been buried under some $70 billion in debt.
There is also a growing concern over the Zika virus.
In July, US health officials reported that as many as 50 pregnant women per day had been infected, raising the risk of birth defects.
Meanwhile, Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro will tackle defending champion Andy Murray for Olympic gold, insisting that his magical Rio run tops his lone Grand Slam triumph at the 2009 US Open.
The 27-year-old was on the brink of retiring last year after undergoing a third wrist operation in five years and seeing his ranking drop from four in the world to its current 141. But the 1.98m (6ft 6ins) giant has been rejuvenated in Rio beating world number one Novak Djokovic in the first round before seeing off 2008 Olympic champion Rafael Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 7-6, (7/5) in an epic three-hour semi-final on Saturday.
Second seed Murray reached his second successive Olympic final with a ruthless 6-1, 6-4 demolition of Japan’s Kei Nishikori.
