Hurdler Jasmine Camacho-Quinn wins second-ever gold medal for Puerto Rico

As La Borinqueña, the Puerto Rican anthem, sounded at the Tokyo Olympics 100 meters hurdles victory ceremony on Monday, gold medalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn teared up on the podium, wearing hoop earrings and a red Flor de Maga — Puerto Rico’s national flower — pinned to her hair.

The island’s flag fluttered above the athlete, whose victory represents Puerto Rico’s first gold medal and second-ever Olympic title altogether, following Monica Puig’s women’s singles tennis victory in 2016.

“It means a lot to represent such a small country,” said Camacho-Quinn following her triumph, a Puerto Rican flag draped from her shoulders. “This is giving younger kids hope.”

Puerto Ricans have commemorated Camacho-Quinn’s win as boricua excellence and a reason for hope after devastating natural disasters and the coronavirus pandemic struck the U.S. territory. That the lightning-fast Olympian is a Black woman raised in the Puerto Rican diaspora also showcases the multiplicity of meanings her win embodies. Many celebrating her victory say she is a trailblazer who is vaulting over hurdles both in society as well as on the field.

‘I run for Puerto Rico!’

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, 24, is the South Carolina-born child of a Puerto Rican mother and a Black father. Raised in an athletic family, Camacho-Quinn attended the University of Kentucky, where she was a three-time NCAA champion.

As a Puerto Rican raised and shaped in the American South, Camacho-Quinn could qualify as an Olympian for the United States. But she has made her heritage a cornerstone of her athleticism, competing for the island of her roots.

“I RUN FOR PUERTO RICO!” she wrote on her social media in 2017, responding to questions if she would ever run for the U.S. “I WILL CONTINUE TO RUN WITH PR ACROSS MY CHEST. Puerto Rico all day everyday and that’s the end of it!”

She represented the island as an Olympian athlete in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. But during the semifinals, the then-19-year-old tripped on multiple hurdles, crying as she fell defeated to the track.

Five years later, the athlete, who has a tattoo of Puerto Rico overlaid with Olympic rings on her bicep, won gold for the Caribbean island. Before speeding past her counterparts to victory, the sprinter had already set an Olympic record at the semi-finals.

Her choice to represent her mother’s home — and how she spotlights Puerto Rico — has moved many people, who have celebrated her victory from the island and across the diaspora.

At the Convention Center in San Juan, a crowd jumped up and down as Marc-Anthony’s Vivir Mi Vida blared from above when she sped past competitors, claiming victory. From a South Carolina restaurant, Camacho-Quinn’s loved ones waved Puerto Rican flags, a trio of them fixed under the television set. High above in the skies, airplane passengers broke into applause under the dim blue light of the cabin.

Prominent Puerto Ricans running the gamut from Gov. Pedro Pierluisi to Daddy Yankee publicly congratulated her.

“Thank you Jasmine, you are determination, dedication and tenacity, everything that represents the Boricua woman. Congratulations!” wrote the island’s top official.

All of the island’s major newspapers showed a beaming Camacho-Quinn holding up a Puerto Rican flag in the front pages of their morning-after print editions.

“Puerto Rico is celebrating!” read one headline. “Thanks to Jasmine the borinqueña sounds,” said another.

Child of the Puerto Rican diaspora

Like the other gold medalist for Puerto Rico, Monica Puig, who grew up in Miami, Camacho-Quinn was raised in the diaspora. For Puerto Ricans who grew up or live outside of the island, the track-and-field victory has brought a special sense of pride and belonging.

“As the mom of a Puerto Rican child who grew up in the U.S. and doesn’t speak fluent Spanish... Jasmine Camacho-Quinn’s win at the Olympics for PUR and the loving reception of the vast majority of PR is deeply moving and feels personal,” wrote Ileana P. Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican social psychology scholar.

But the win has also sparked debate among Puerto Ricans who believe there are specific criteria about who can claim a Puerto Rican identity, including speaking Spanish and being born on the island.

Aaron Gamaliel Ramos, professor of Social Sciences at the Faculty of General Studies at the University of Puerto Rico, rebuffs this gatekeeping version of Puerto Rican identity..

“Puerto Ricans who live on the island, in the territory, should recognize the importance of what has been called the ‘diaspora,’ who identify with Puerto Rico in diverse forms,” he told the Miami Herald, adding it was “unfortunate” that some people felt they could question other people’s roots.

“We have to change a very old view. And it is that a nation is only in one specific place, in a specific geographic location,” he said. “And not what we see now because of ease of emigration from countries, the movement of people worldwide. The notion of identity is much more fluid.”

Camacho-Quinn told the media when asked about her Spanish language skills that she was learning her mother’s tongue in a boricua accent, highlighting Gamaliel Ramos’ point that language skills are not foundational to Puerto Rican identity.

“Identification with the territorial nation is not limited to language. It is no longer necessary for the person to know how to speak Spanish or speak as it is spoken in Puerto Rico for this person to feel identified with Puerto Rico,” he said.

Camacho-Quinn’s Puerto Rican identity and her victory have been widely acclaimed among Puerto Ricans of varied origins. She has alluded to the support and love she has felt coming from the island and the diaspora.

“I am Puerto Rican!” Camacho-Quinn proudly declared with a smile in an interview posted by the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee.

Historic victory for Black Puerto Ricans, women athletes

Camacho-Quinn is the first Afro-Puerto-Rican athlete to earn a gold medal for the island, where more than 10% of the population identifies as Black or African-American.

The victory is historic for this reason, said Barbara Abadía Rexach, professor of Afro-Latinidades at San Francisco State University.

“I celebrate Jasmine’s person because she claims the beauty of Afro-Puerto Ricans,” the social anthropologist said of Camacho-Quinn, who received the golden medal at the ceremony wearing her natural afro.

For Abadía Rexach, Camacho-Quinn’s victory is a pioneering example for black girls on the island that shows them they can achieve whatever they set their minds to, despite the systemic barriers they will encounter due to their gender, race and ethnicity.

“She claims their power and their capacity to do sports or anything else, and is a role model because of her young age,” she said.

Former Puerto Rican National Volleyball team member Shirley Ferrer Nuñez said it was inspiring seeing a woman of her skin color winning a gold medal for her homeland at the Olympics. Black women are underrepresented in sports on the island, she told the Miami Herald, and have fewer opportunities than their white counterparts.

“It is a huge step in our culture to see how a white girl can see a Black woman as a role model,” she said. “Not only in Puerto Rico but in the rest of the world.”

Camacho-Quinn’s triumph confirms the importance of investing more money in female athletes and rooting out inequality in sports, said Nemesis García Ortíz, a 23-year-old sports analyst.

“In sports, the phrase ‘you play like a girl, I think that phrase should not be used to make us feel inferior because playing as a girl, people can win gold.”