Adriana Ruano Oliva's eight-year transformation from Olympic Games volunteer to country’s first Olympic champion
From artistic gymnast to reluctant shooter, from Olympic volunteer to Olympic champion – Adriana Ruano Oliva recounts the unlikely eight-year journey that culminated in Guatemala's first ever Olympic gold medal.
Shooting
At Rio 2016, Adriana Ruano Oliva was cleaning up the shooting competition area dressed in a bright yellow volunteer uniform. Eight years later, she was in the competition area again and on the podium with a gold medal around her neck – the first ever gold medal for Guatemala at an Olympic Games.
It has been a whirlwind journey for Ruano Oliva who has reinvented herself multiple times over the last 13 years: from competitive artistic gymnast to shooting enthusiast, Olympic volunteer to Olympic champion.
Inspired to pursue her Olympic dream again, now in a different sport, after volunteering at Rio 2016, Ruano Oliva exceeded all expectations when she shot an Olympic record to win the women’s trap final at Paris 2024. It was her country’s third Olympic medal and the first for a female athlete. Despite the significance of this accomplishment, Ruano Oliva said it has made her even more humble.
"As a person, I haven't changed at all. I think that this event and this blessing that God has given me has made me bow my head even lower. That’s been my approach throughout this journey, and I want to maintain it," Ruano Oliva told us.
“Only two months have passed since that day, but as time goes on, I’m starting to understand what this medal really means," she continued. "Almost 95 per cent of the people who’ve approached me after that have told me, ‘You made us cry that day. I don’t usually cry, but you made me cry that day'.
“The people of Guatemala, they saw it as a dream, something very distant. Seeing how people have approached me to share their stories about how they experienced that day, that’s when I realised the true impact this has had on the country."
Olympics.com spoke to the history-making athlete about her journey from gymnastics to discovering a new mission in shooting, jumping from last place at Tokyo 2020 to top spot at Paris 2024, and carrying a photograph of her father to the Olympic podium.
From Olympic gymnastics hopeful to finding new mission – and mindset – in shooting
Ruano Oliva started artistic gymnastics when she was three and a half years old. Shortly after, at age 5, she met Olympian Luisa Portocarrero. Portocarrero was the second gymnast from Guatemala to compete at an Olympic Games when she made her appearance at Barcelona 1992.
After that meeting, Ruano Oliva started dreaming of becoming an Olympian herself.
"My dream was always to compete at the Olympic Games and represent Guatemala, but in artistic gymnastics,” Ruano Oliva said. “It was because of her that this dream was born — to one day represent Guatemala at the Olympics.”
The young gymnast dedicated herself to training, consistently improving her level, and putting herself on track to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games. One step remained standing between her and those Games – the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo, which served as a qualifier event.
Twenty days before the competition, however, Ruano Oliva damaged six vertebrae. The serious spinal injury not only side-lined the then-16-year-old from the event but forced her to abandon gymnastics for good.
Suddenly torn from her Olympic dream, Ruano Oliva felt lost as she searched for a new identity. It was then that her brother's friend Rodrigo Sacristan, who practised skeet shooting in Guatemala, suggested that she should try this sport.
"I gave this sport a chance because it was basically the only one I could practise. It’s a sport that doesn’t demand as much physically, but more on the psychological side," Ruano Oliva said.
“I decided to give it a chance. To be honest, I didn’t like shooting at first, but I saw it as an opportunity — as a form of therapy, really. Over time I became truly passionate about the sport."
Aside from giving Ruano Oliva new goals to strive for, shooting had positive impacts on other aspects of her life. She relished being outdoors, watching sunsets she had missed out on while training almost every evening in the indoor gymnastics centre.
The sport also helped her to overcome the frustration she felt for having to give up her gymnastics career.
“Shooting is a very introspective sport. It was the first time I was able to take time to get to know myself, to figure out what I wanted and where I wanted to go,” Ruano Oliva said.
“I used to make this analogy, thinking that shooting was like a situation I was going through. Each time I successfully hit the target and the clay broke, it felt like one more point in my favour, like a positive step towards overcoming the situation I was facing at the time. I believe there were many aspects in which shooting helped me to move forward."
First Olympic Games, in a volunteer uniform
Trap shooting turned out to be a good fit for Ruano Oliva. But while she enjoyed the sport more and more with each passing year, the once Olympic gymnastics hopeful did not set ambitious goals in it.
That is, until Rio 2016.
Ruano Oliva decided to make some part of her Olympic dream come true and signed up for the 2016 Games as a volunteer. She was assigned to the National Shooting Centre where she helped to clean the field of play and sometimes also to seat spectators.
In between her duties, she watched fellow Guatemalans Enrique and Herbert Brol compete in the men’s double trap event. Following the brothers in their bid for Olympic hardware reignited a familiar spark inside her.
“I had the chance to watch them compete live, to experience the competition and the Olympic spirit for the first time. Living the Olympic Games from the perspective of a volunteer, that’s when I thought, ‘This is what I want, and I want to come back and live this as an athlete'," Ruano Oliva recalled. "I think that’s when that dream began to bloom again."
Adriana Ruano Oliva's self-love journey to Olympic gold
Just as she did after meeting Olympic gymnast Portocarrero, Ruano Oliva started training even harder in shooting after watching the Brol brothers. Two years later, in 2018, she qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. She was the first athlete from Guatemala to secure a quota and the first ever female shooter from the country to do so.
The postponement of the Games to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic gave Ruano Oliva an extra year to prepare for the competition. But on 17 June 2021, a family tragedy shook up all her preparation and resolve.
“Just a month before the Tokyo Olympics, my father passed away. So, those were very difficult years, full of emotional weight," Ruano Oliva recalled. "All I wanted was to go to Tokyo and enjoy the experience, but I couldn’t enjoy it. On top of that, I put extra pressure on myself to honour my father with a good result at the Games, and I think that was the worst thing I could have done.”
Finishing 26th and last in the women's trap qualification at Tokyo 2020 was not the Olympic debut Ruano Oliva had imagined. One positive she did take away from those Games, however, was meeting her current psychologist Ricardo Gonzalez three months before the Olympics.
Gonzalez was key in supporting the athlete during those emotionally difficult Games and once the competition was over, Ruano Oliva decided to dedicate even more attention to the psychological side of her sport.
“Tokyo wasn’t the Olympic Games I had imagined when I was four years old. So, when I came back from Tokyo, that became my main motivation to reach a new qualification," Ruano Oliva said.
"I came back from the Tokyo Olympics, and I remember telling my psychologist, 'Look, I don’t want to work on anything from a sporting perspective. I think now that we’re starting a new Olympic cycle, it’s a good time to focus on the personal aspect, which is the foundation of everything – being comfortable with oneself, working on self-love, and mental health'. That was one of the best decisions I could make at that moment – to work on myself. We spent almost six or seven months focusing on the personal side of things.”
The effort paid off as a calm Ruano Oliva shot an Olympic record of 45 to win a gold medal at Paris 2024 and make history for her country. The win came a day after her compatriot, Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas – the youngest of the Brol brothers – won Guatemala’s second ever Olympic medal, a bronze in the men’s trap final.
Guatemala’s first Olympic medal dates back more than a decade when Erick Barrondo took silver in the men’s 20km walk at London 2012.
Adriana Ruano Oliva shot an Olympic record at Paris 2024 to become Guatemala's first ever Olympic champion.
Ruano Oliva and father: Four hands guiding the shotgun to golden aim
While the Olympic final was the most public attention and biggest spotlight Ruano has ever experienced, it was also a very private moment for the 29-year-old athlete.
Standing on the podium, she pulled out a photograph of her late father, Luis Fernando Ruano Aceituno, and held it next to her medal. Her mother and brother were watching the moment from the stands.
"I always carry the photograph of my father in the vest I use for shooting. Since he passed away, I’ve kept it with me at all times. Before entering a competition round, I look at his picture and for me, it feels as if he’s placing his hands on my shotgun as well, as if it has four hands instead of two hands guiding it towards the target. It’s no longer about remembering him with sadness, but rather with joy. Knowing that he is there is that extra bit of help for me," Ruano Oliva said.
"I truly dreamed of this moment – being on the podium and being able to pose with his picture next to an Olympic medal. Every time I visualised it, my eyes would fill with tears because he has been my driving force throughout this entire journey."