Puerto Rico at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Infobox Olympics Puerto Rico
games=2004 Summer
competitors=43 (32 men, 11 women)
sports=15
flagbearer=Carlos Arroyo
officials=

Puerto Rico, represented by the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee, competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

The Puerto Ricans' best performance was with the Puerto Rican national basketball team that defeated the Dream Team of the United States 92-73 in the opening game.

Basketball player Carlos Arroyo was the flag-bearer of the delegation.

Results by event

= Athletics =

Luiggy Llanos in the men's decathlon had recorded two season bests and a personal best, and sat in 15th place before he failed to complete a single attempt at the pole vault and pulled out. This left the best finisher as Yvonne Harrison in the 400 metre hurdles.

Men's 3000 metre Steeplechase:
* Alexander Greaux
**Round 1: 8:33.62 (9th in heat 3, did not advance, 28th overall))

Men's Decathlon:
* Luiggy Llanos
**Did not finish
***100 metres: 10.94 s (874 points) ("Season Best")
***Long Jump: 7.43 m (918 points) (Total: 1792 points)
***Shot Put: 13.77 m (714 points) (Total: 2506 points)
***High Jump: 1.91 m (723 points) (Total: 3229 points) ("Season Best")
***400 metres: 49.28 s (848 points) (Total: 4077 points) ("Season Best")
***110 metre Hurdles: 14.13 s (958 points) (Total: 5035 points) ("Personal Best")
***Discus Throw: 41.82 m (702 points) (Total: 5737 points)
***Pole Vault: No mark (0 points) (Total: 5737 points)
***Javelin Throw: Did not start

Women's 400 metre Hurdles
* Yvonne Harrison
**Round 1: 55.84 s (5th in heat 4, did not advance, 19th overall))

= Basketball =

The Puerto Rican team made history in their very first game in Athens, handing the Americans their first loss since NBA players were allowed to compete in the Olympics. The upset was even greater, given that the Puerto Ricans led by 22 at the half, and finished winning by 19. They earned closer wins against Australia and Angola, along with losing to the hosts and to Lithuania, earning them a quarterfinal against Italy. The Italians led by six at half-time, and only expanded that lead in the last two quarters. This left the Puerto Ricans in a 5th placed game against Greece, which had a smiliar result to the two teams' first game, with Greece winning easily. The team's leading scorer was Carlos Arroyo of the Utah Jazz, who averaged 18 points per game, while Daniel Santiago contributed 5.7 rebounds a game.

Men's Competiton:

* Team Roster
**Point Guards
***Carlos Arroyo
***Christian Dalmau
***Roberto Hatton
**Shooting Guards
***Elias Ayuso
***Eddie Casiano
**Small Forwards
***Rick Apodaca
***Rolando Hourruitiner
**Power Forwards
***Sharif Fajardo
***Jorge Rivera
**Centres
***Jose Ortiz "Captain"
***Peter John Ramos
***Daniel Santiago

* Pool B
** Defeated the United States (92 - 73)
** Lost to Lithuania (90 - 98)
** Defeated Angola (83 - 80)
** Defeated Australia (87 - 82)
** Lost to Greece (58 - 78)
*3rd in group, "Qualified" (3 W, 2 L, 389 PF, 343 PA)
**Quarterfinal: Lost to Italy (70 - 83)
**5th placed Classification: Lost to Greece (75 - 85) (6th overall)

= Boxing =

Only one of the five Puerto Rican boxers was able to win a match in Athens. However, this was an improvement over the 2000 Summer Olympics, when no Puerto Rican won a match.

W = Win
L = Loss
PTS = Points

= Diving =

Rodriguez managed to make the semifinal in the 10 metre platform, but never scored higher than a seven with her four dives in the semifinal, and ended up last.

Women's 3 metre Springboard:
* Angelique Rodriguez
** Preliminary: 239.19 points (25th overall, did not advance)

Women's 10 metre Platform:
* Angelique Rodriguez
** Preliminary: 316.08 points (11th overall, "Qualified")
** Semifinal: 139.86 points (Total: 455.94) (18th overall, did not advance)

= Equestrian =

2003 Pan Am champion Mark Watring struggled in the first two qualification rounds and withdrew before the third round.

Individual Jumping:
* Mark Watring riding Sapphire
**First Qualifier: 25 faults (73rd overall)
**Second Qualifier: 39 faults (Total: 64 faults, 68th overall)
**Third Qualifier: Withdrew

= Gymnastics =

Luis Vargas just missed out on the pommel horse final, but did manage to make the all-around final, where he placed 15th.

Men's All-Around:
* Luis Vargas
**Qualification: 56.587 points (16th overall, "Qualified")
***Floor Exercise: 9.037 points (60th overall, did not advance)
***Pommel Horse: 9.675 points (13th overall, did not advance)
***Rings: 9.500 points (46th overall, did not advance)
***Parallel Bars: 9.325 points (49th overall, did not advance)
***Horizontal Bar: 9.625 points (30th overall, did not advance)
***Vault: 9.425 points (one vault only)
**Final: 56.135 points (Floor Exercise: 8.337 points, Pommel Horse: 9.612 points, Rings: 9.500 points, Vault: 9.462 points, Parallel Bars: 9.562 points, Horizontal Bar: 9.662 points) (15th overall)

= Judo =

The Puerto Rican judo team failed to win a single match in Athens, going 0-4.

Men's 66 kg (Half-Lightweight):
* Melvin Mendez
**Round of 32: Lost to Oscar Penas of Spain (Kuchiki-taoshi; ippon - 0:09 - Golden Score)

Men's 100 kg (Half-Heavyweight):
* Ramón Ayala
**Round of 32: Lost to Sami Belgroun of Algeria (Uchi-mata; ippon - 3:05)

Women's 57 kg (Lightweight):
* Jessica Garcia
**Round of 32: Bye
**Round of 16: Lost to Yvonne Boenisch of Germany (Yoko-shiho-gatame; w'ari ippon - 0:17) (advanced to first repechage round)
**Repechage Round 1: Lost to Isabel Fernandez of Spain (Ouchi-gaeshi; Yuko)

= Sailing =

While Barrera struggled in the Women's Mistral, finishing last overall, Figueroa and Hernandez sat in 5th for the first five races, then fell pack in the last few, ending up in 7th.

Women's Mistral:
*Karla Barrera
**250 points (26th overall)

Open Tornado:
*Enrique Figueroa and Jorge Hernandez
**72 points (7th overall)

= Shooting =

Men's Trap:
* Lucas Rafael Bennazar Ortiz
**Qualification: 112 points (T-27th overall, did not advance)

Men's Double Trap:
* Lucas Rafael Bennazar Ortiz
**Qualification: 122 points (23rd overall, did not advance)

= Swimming =

Ricardo Busquets was the only member of the Puerto Rico swim team to progress beyond the opening heats, but was unable to get any further than the semifinal in the Men's 50 metre freestyle.

Men's 50 metre Freestyle:
* Ricardo Busquets
**Heat: 22.45 s (12th overall, "Qualified")
**Semifinal: 22.52 s (15th overall, did not advance)

Men's 100 metre Breaststroke:
* Arsenio Lopez
**Heat: 1:03.99 (T-36th overall, did not advance)

Men's 200 metre Butterfly:
* Andrew Livingston
**Heat 1:59.42: (T-21st overall, did not advance)

Men's 200 metre Individual Medley:
* Jorge Oliver
**Heat: 2:08.84 (T-45th place, did not advance)

Women's 50 metre Freestyle:
* Vanessa Garcia]
**Heat: 26.26 s (T-28th overall, did not advance)

Women's 100 metre Freestyle:
* Vanessa Garcia
**Heat: 57.38 s (35th overall, did not advance)

Women's 200 metre Backstroke:
* Gretchen Gotay Cordero
**Heat: 2:23.39 (31st overall, did not advance)

= Synchronized swimming =

The Puerto Rican duo finished second-to-last in both the technical and free routines.

Women's Duet:
* Luna del Mar Aguilu and Leilani Torres-Maldonado
**Preliminary Technical Routine: 79.333 points (23rd overall)
**Preliminary Free Routine: 79.833 points (Total: 79.584 points, 23rd overall, did not advance)

= Taekwondo =

Ineabelle Diaz came just one match short of being Puerto Rico's first female Olympic medalist, but was beaten in both her semifinal and her repechage match after benefiting from a bye and a judges decision to make the semis.

Women's 67 kg:
* Ineabelle Diaz
**Round of 16: Bye
**Quarterfinal: Defeated Mouna Benabderassoul of Morocco (4 - 4; Superiority)
**Semifinal: Lost to Luo Wei of China (3 - 5) (advanced to repechage round 2)
**Repechage Round 2: Lost to Heidy Juarez of Guatemala (2 - 5)

= Tennis =

The world #46, Brandi beat a similarly ranked opponent in the opening round before falling in three sets to the 3rd seed in the second round.

Women's Singles:
* Kristina Brandi
**First Round: Defeated Jelena Kostanic of Croatia (7 - 5, 6 - 1)
**Second Round: Lost to (3) Anastasia Myskina Russia (2 - 6, 6 - 3, 4 - 6)

= Volleyball=

Beach

The Puerto Rican duo finished last in their pool, and did not win a match, though they did force the Swedish team into a tight third set.

Men's Competition:
* Ramon Hernández and Raul Papaleo
**Pool D
***Lost to Markus Dieckmann and Jonas Reckermann of Germany (14 - 21, 13 - 21)
***Lost to Jorre Kjemperud and Vegard Hoidalen of Norway (21 - 18, 19 - 21, 10 - 15)
***Lost to Bjorn Berg and Simon Dahl of Sweden (21 - 19, 16 - 21, 16 - 18)
**4th in pool, did not advance (0 W, 3 L, 2 SW, 6 SL)

= Wrestling =

Freestyle

Fonseca finished second in her pool to qualify for a classification match, and managed to win both her classification and ranking match to finish fifth. However, she tested positive for the steroid stanozolol, and her 5th place finish was stripped [cite news |title= Summer 2004 Games: Notebook; Weight Lifter and Wrestler Are Disqualified for Drug Use |url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E4DC1F3EF93AA1575BC0A9629C8B63|work= New York Times|date= Aug. 29, 2004|accessdate=2008-07-04 ] . Both her pool matches ended in falls less than forty seconds from the beginning, one in victory and one in defeat.

Women's 55 kg:
* Mabel Fonseca
**Pool 2
***Defeated Tetyana Lazareva of Ukraine (Fall; 0:39)
***Lost to Ida-Theres Karlsson of Sweden (Fall; 0:31)
**2nd in pool, "Qualified" (4 TP, 4 CP)
**5th-6th Classification: Defeated Tela O'Donnell of United States (10 - 7)
**5th Place Match: Defeated Sun Dongmei of China (8 - 6; 7:52)
**Disqualified : Anti-doping rule violation (originally 5th place)

Officials

*President: Hector F. Cardona Sr.
*Secretary General: José Julián Alvarez

References

* [http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/2004/Results/ Official Report of the XXVIII Olympiad]

*cite book
last = Wallechinsky
first = David
authorlink = David Wallechinsky
coauthors = Jamie Loucky
title = The Complete Book of the Olympics : 2008 Edition
publisher = Aurum Press
year = 2008
location = London
pages =
isbn = 978-1845133306