Soraya Jiménez: Google Doodle celebrates Mexican weightlifter and Olympic champion’s 44th birthday

Google Doodle celebrates the 44th birthday of Mexican weightlifter and Olympic champion Soraya Jiménez, who became the first ever female athlete from Mexico to win an Olympic gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, on August 5, 2021.

Who was Soraya Jiménez?

Soraya Jiménez Mendivil was born on August 5, 1977 in Naucalpan de Juárez, Mexico. She began in the sport at an early age when she started to play basketball in primary school with her twin sister Magali Jiménez, to the reason behind being selected for children and later youths in this sport.

After additionally taking a shot in different sports like badminton and swimming , between the ages of 11 and 14, Soraya Jiménez found her preference for weightlifting so she started to completely coordinate into this game directed by his teachers who saw potential in it in her abilities to support heavy weights and started to try out different competitions.

Soraya Jiménez started to stand apart increasingly more nationally in weightlifting and her first international title was accomplished at 16 years old when she acquired a third spot in weightlifting at the NORCECA Cup in Colorado Springs, United States in the 54 kg category, where she accomplished lift 120 total kilograms.

In 1996, Soraya Jiménez accomplished her first victory in a competition, winning gold medal at the Simón Bolívar International Tournament in Carúpano, Venezuela, where she lifted an aggregate of 170 kilos, establishing a Mexican record for the first time.

The International Olympic Committee supported in 1997 the participation of women in weightlifting within the Olympic Games.

Later Soraya Jiménez vanquished the Youth Olympiad, the Central American and Caribbean Games in 1998, acquired silver in the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1999 and took part in numerous other international competitions which permitted her qualify for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games .

Soraya Jiménez’s most heavenly moment came on September 18, 2000, when Jiménez made history by becoming the first Mexican woman to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games, taking first place in the last lift of the competition of 127.5 kg lifted and beating the favorite competitor the North Korean Ri Song Hui and furthermore getting a gold medal for Mexico that had not been acquired since Los Angeles 1984 .

Soraya Jiménez contended at world championships, most recently at the 2003 World Weightlifting Championships. Subsequent to failing to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, he draw that same year from high-performance.

After Soraya Jiménez’s retirement, she started to show numerous deteriorations in her health. The Olympic medalist amassed a clinical history of 14 operations to her left side leg, a few cardiorespiratory attacks and the loss of a lung that was eliminated in 2007 because of the kind B flu that she contracted in July of that year during the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro that even saved her near the very edge of death for 15 days.

Soraya Jiménez’s athletic career arrived at its zenith when she lifted a stunning total of 497 pounds, bringing home the gold in the 58 kg (128 lbs) category weightlifting event at the 2000 Summer Games.

Despite the fact that Soraya Jiménez retired in 2004, Jiménez kept on sharing her knowledge for sports as a telecaster for Televisa, the world’s biggest Spanish-language media organization and parent of Univision in the U.S.

On March 28, 2013, Soraya Jiménez died at 35 years old in her appartment situated in Mexico City after suffering a heart attack .

Soraya Jiménez was described in a statement by the Mexico Olympic Committee as one of her country’s “most beloved athletes.”

On August 5, 2021, Google featured Doodle on its homepage for celebrating Soraya Jiménez’s 44th Birthday. Today’s Google Doodle is represented by guest artist Carolina Martínez.