The very first medal was won by the 18-year-old Avitia, from Monterrey. She had started shooting in 2001 aged six, and went on to compete in Beijing aged just 14 – the youngest member of the entire Mexican Olympic delegation. She finished eighth, with her teammate Juan Rene Serrano in a heartbreaking fourth place, after qualifying in first.
In London, Mexico had full teams of men and women. Along with Roman and Avitia, it was the debut Olympics for Alejandra Valencia and a trio of Mexican men: Serrrano, Luis Eduardo Velez and Luis Alvarez. All four were knocked out in the 1/16 eliminations round, with Alvarez losing to eventual gold medallist, Oh Jin Hyek.
In the team event, with matches still decided by cumulative points, the Mexican men finished in a frustrating fourth, losing the bronze medal match against Korea 224-219, while the Mexican women were eliminated in the quarterfinals by eventual bronze medallists Japan.
August 2nd was the women’s individual finals. Korean coaching expertise was fully flying around the world by 2012, and coaches Lee Woong and Songi Woo were part of the Mexican setup.
Avitia had beaten Zahra Dehghanabnavi, Naomi Folkard, and Carina Christiansen, all by 6-2 scorelines, to set up a meeting in the last eight with Korea’s experienced Lee Sung Jin – already a multiple Olympic medallist.
“She was obviously seen as one of the favourites in those Games and when I eliminated her, everyone was paralyzed because there was only one Korean and two Mexicans left,” Avitia recalls.
Avitia lost the first set 26-29, but replied with an end of 27 to Lee’s 25. The third, critical set saw her put in a 30 to Lee’s 29, followed by a 29 to a 28.
A shock it might have been, but she was through – to face her teammate, Aida Roman.
“Without a doubt, every archer I faced in those Olympic Games was a challenge and the best match for me was against the Korean in the quarterfinals. I watch the replay and I say ‘wow, I shot very well, but at the end of the day archery is a surprise.”
Aida and Mariana, after looking at the bracket the night before, had joked ‘see you in the semi’ to each other, but it was suddenly reality. “Before the quarterfinal I knew that if I won I was going to face Aida but it threw me off a little bit that we went in with only one coach.”
“We had two, there was coach Lee [Woong] and Miguel Flores. But coach Lee decided that he [Miguel] should not go in and said ‘I’m going in with the two of them’.”
“Miguel could very well have come in with me, but due to orders [from coach Lee] it was not possible. [He] was behind Aida and I was relatively ‘alone’. He (Lee) said that the medals were not ours, they were for the country.”
With both archers shooting well below their day’s peak level, Roman won the encounter 6-2, and would go on to face Ki Bo Bae in a classic women’s final.
“I said to myself ‘well, I’m shooting with Aida’ and, to be honest, I got a little too relaxed as I was used to shooting with my teammate. At the end of that match I knew I had to change my mindset and go back to what I was doing before if I want to win bronze.” said Avitia.
