Guatemala wins its first ever Olympic medal
Erick Barrondo won silver in the 20-km race walk on Saturday. He's the first ever Guatemalan to medal in the Olympics.
Erick Barrondo won silver in the 20-km race walk on Saturday. He's the first ever Guatemalan to medal in the Olympics.
鈥� A version of this post ran on the author's blog, centralamericanpolitics.blogspot.com. The views expressed are the author's own.
On Saturday, Erick Barrondo won silver in听 the 20-kilometer race walk [Yes, race walking is an Olympic sport 鈥� Read this.]. Barrondo won the first Olympic medal for Guatemala, a听country which has been participating in the Olympic Games since 1952 (must be another听accomplishment from听Arevalo and Arbenz to add to my class notes). Barrondo is from the Chiyuc aldea in San Cristobal, Verapaz.
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On Friday, the New York Times ran a piece on why racewalking is so popular in Latin America.
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Congratulations to Barrondo and to the people of Guatemala!
From the AFP:
Here's more on Guatemala's newest national hero.听
鈥� Mike Allison is an associate professor in the听Political Science Department听and a member of the听Latin American and Women's Studies Department听at the听University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. 听You can follow his Central American Politics blog here.