Colombia’s flag bearer at the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony, cyclist Mariana Pajón is only 20 years old and made her debut in the world’s greatest sporting event in a dramatic way. She won all three runs of BMX semi-finals, leaving her opponents behind in the final and winning Colombia’s second gold medal in all the South American country’s participations in the Olympic Games.

With Carlos Mario Oquendo’s bronze in the men’s event, BMX was responsible for 25% of Colombian medals in the London 2012 Games. Colombia finished 38th in the general medal table with one gold, three silver and four bronze medals. It is worth remembering that in all other 18 editions in which it participated, Colombia won one gold, three silver and seven bronze medals. This means the number of medals won in the Olympic Games practically doubled.

Not surprisingly, since 2011, the year she became world champion, Pajón is a reference for Olympic Cycling’s newest discipline and a sports personality in her home country. In the beginning of July, her Facebook page had more than one million followers and, in the end of the month, on 24-28, she will defend her title in the BMX World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand.

“This post-Olympic Games year is a transition one for me. I just want to have fun”, the Paisa (as the people who are born in the region that includes Medellin are known) athlete said. She started her sports career in Artistic Gymnastics and first competed in BMX when she was 9 years old, thanks to the encouragement of her parents, former athletes of the discipline.

In Rio 2016™, Mariana might be the woman the others will have to defeat in the circuit that will be built in the X Park, in Deodoro zone, which will remain as a legacy for athletes as well as the general public after the first South American edition of the Olympic Games.

Maris Strombergs flies before winning the second Olympic title of his career (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Latvian Strombergs is twice-champion

If Colombia won eight medals in London 2012, Latvia has won two medals: gold with Maris Strombergs in BMX Cycling and bronze in Beach Volleyball with the duo Martins Plavins/Janis Smedins. It looks like there are many coincidences between Latvia’s and Colombia’s participations in the Olympic Games.

Besides only having won gold medals in London 2012 in BMX Cycling, both countries first reached the top of the podium in Sydney 2000 with Latvian gymnast Igors Vihrovs in floor exercise and Colombian weightlifter Maria Isabel Urrutia. In short: only two people from each country had the honour of listening to the national anthem in competition.

The main difference is that Strombergs heard the anthem twice, in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. Soon after his second Olympic title, the Latvian known as “Machine” set aside BMX and started training cross-country ski in order to keep fit. “As a child, I never believed I would be able to win two Olympic titles. But once I did, it was difficult to keep myself motivated and I ended the season early”, said the 26-year-old athlete in a recent interview to the International Cycling Union (UCI in French) website.

In 2013 Strombergs felt once again the needed desire for high-level competition much to Latvian sports fans’ delight. Between April and June, he won seven out of the ten rounds in which he competed in the European BMX Championships, in double runs that took place in France, the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden and Latvia.

“I only got on my bike after I really missed it. This break was great. I’m happy to compete once again and I look forward to winning a third world title in New Zealand”, the “Machine” said.