Puerto Rican T-shirt Verónica Toro makes history by qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics

Puerto Rican Verónica Toro made history this Friday, becoming the first woman in the court to discipline rowing who qualified for the Olympic Games.

The news was highlighted by the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee on its social networks.

Toro participated in the pre-Olympic Games that started this Friday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Toro previously represented Puerto Rico at the Barranquilla Games in Central America and the Caribbean in 2018, when he finished fifth in the final event of a pair of short paddles. He also reached the finals of the same event at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, in 2019, when he finished sixth.

Sports historian Carlos Uriarte pointed out that Toro qualified Tokyo upon arrival in fifth place in the individual rowing event in Rio, making her the first representative of Puerto Rican rowing at the 1988 Olympics with Juan Felix. By the way, she will be the first woman in this sport.

Currently, Puerto Rico has 23 ranked athletes, including 18 women, counting the 12 members of the women’s national basketball team, which made history and won its first Olympic ticket.

Adriana Díaz (table tennis); Wesley Vázquez, Andrés Arroyo and Ryan Sánchez (athletics, 800 meters); Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (athletics, 100 m hurdles); Enrique “Quique” Figueroa and Gretchen Ortiz (candles); Lauren Billys (equestrian with her Purdy); Franklin Gómez (wrestling); Victoria Stambaugh (taekwondo); and the 12 members of the women’s basketball team were the 22 Puerto Ricans previously classified, to whom Toro now joins.