3 Chihuahua athletes set to compete in Paris Olympics

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Three Chihuahua, Mexico, natives are competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Alegna Gonzalez Muñoz, of Ojinaga, is competing in the women’s 20-kilometer race walk; Erick Portillo Rodriguez, of Cuauhtemoc, has entered the men’s high jump competition; and Uziel Muñoz Galarza, of Nuevo Casas Grandes, is scheduled to compete in the men’s shot put.

“Alegna, Erick and Uziel are a great example for this and future generations,” Chihuahua Sports Institute Director Tania Romero del Hierro said in anticipation of the start of track and field events in Paris later this week.

Gonzalez, 25, came within 36 seconds of a bronze medal in the same event in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games. Her supporters believe she again has a shot at Olympic glory.

“Alegna since very young has brought glory to Chihuahua and to Mexico. She will represent us again,” Romero said.

Gonzalez came onto the international scene as a teenager by winning a gold medal in the 10-kilometer race walk, under 20 division, at the 2017 Pan American Games in Peru. She again won gold in the U20 10-kilometer race walk at the World Athletics Championships in Finland in 2018.

This is the first Olympic games for Portillo, 23, and Muñoz, 28. Their names have been placed on a wall display at a baseball stadium in Chihuahua City.

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