 Espinoza with her silver medal from the 2016 Summer Olympics | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | María del Rosario Espinoza Espinoza |
Nickname | Chayito[1] |
| Nationality |  Mexico |
| Born | (1987-11-27)November 27, 1987 (age 38) La Brecha, Sinaloa, Mexico |
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[2] |
| Weight | 70 kg (154 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Taekwondo |
Medal record | |
María del Rosario Espinoza Espinoza (born November 27, 1987) is a Mexicantaekwondo practitioner.
Espinoza is one of the two women from Mexico who have won an Olympic gold medal, the other beingSoraya Jiménez.[3]
Espinoza was born on 27 November 1987 inLa Brecha, Sinaloa. Her father is a fisherman and mother a homemaker.[4] She began practicingtaekwondo at age five.[4]
Espinoza won her first international competition in taekwondo at the 2003 Pan American Youth Championship inRio de Janeiro.[4] Later she participated in Open tournaments inCanada,France, andGermany.
She won the2007 World Taekwondo Championships in the Middleweight (–72 kg) category defeatingLee In-Jong and also won the gold medal at the2007 Pan American Games in the Heavyweight (+67 kg) category, defeating BrazilianNatália Falavigna in the final.[5]
She participated in the +67 kg weight class at the2008 Beijing Olympics. She began with a victory over TunisianKhaoula Ben Hamza by a score of 4–0, later she beat SwedishKarolina Kedzierska 4–2. In the semifinals she qualified for the final by defeating British former world champion and eventual bronze medal winnerSarah Stevenson 4-1 and culminated in winning the gold medal by beating NorwegianNina Solheim 3-1, earning the second gold forMexico at the 2008 Olympics.[6]
In 2012, María returned to theOlympics in London. She carried the flag for Mexico during the Parade of Nations and won a bronze medal. She beatSorn Davin in the first round before losing to eventual gold medallistMilica Mandić in the quarterfinals. In the repechage, she beatTalitiga Crawley before winning her bronze medal match againstGlenhis Hernández.[7]
InRio 2016, Espinoza won a silver medal to become the first female Mexican athlete to earn an Olympic medal in three different Olympic Games, and the second Mexican athlete to earn Olympic medals in three consecutive editions.[8] She carried Mexico's flag at the closing ceremony in 2016.[9]
María Espinoza won second place in the Taekwondo world championships in Manchester on May 16,2019.[10]
Espinoza is a member of theMexican Army with the rank ofCabo (Corporal)auxiliar de Educación Física y Deportes. Top athletes have joined the military for the stable income and access to the best training facilities. For the 2016 Rio Olympics, 21 of the 125 Mexican athletes were part of the military. Four of the five medals won at those games were won by military personnel (María Espinoza,Germán Sánchez,Ismael Hernández andLupita González).[11]
Espinoza studied Business Administration at theUniversidad del Valle de Mexico. She was inducted into the university's Sports Hall of Fame.[12]
| Olympic Games | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Flagbearer for Mexico London 2012 | Succeeded by |
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