Humberto MARILES CORTES

Humberto Mariles Cortés won three Olympic medals at the 1948 Games in London. He was individual champion in the show jumping and helped Mexico win a gold medal in the team event as well. In addition, Mariles helped the Mexican three-day team win a bronze medal. (The combination of winning Olympic medals in jumping and eventing has been accomplished 13 times in Olympic history.) At the 1955 Pan American Games he won gold with the jumping team (with Roberto Viñals and the non-Olympians Jaime de la Garza and Joaquín D'Harcourt). On 14 August 1964, Mariles Cortés was driving home from a party in Ciudad Mexico when he was forced off the road. At the next traffic light, Mariles pulled out a pistol and shot the other driver. Initially imprisoned he was released by presidential pardon. In 1972 he was arrested in Paris for drug-smuggling but died in prison before coming to trial.