CHATEAUROUX, France (AP) — A spinal injury ended Adriana Ruano's chances of competing at the Olympics as a gymnast. She came back as a shooter and won Guatemala's first gold medal on Wednesday.
Ruano was training for the 2011 world championships in gymnastics, a qualifier for the London Olympics the following year, when she felt pain in her back.
Scans showed she had six damaged vertebrae — a career-ending injury at age 16 — and she spent a year recovering, wearing a brace. Ruano's doctor recommended she take up shooting if she wanted to stay in sports without aggravating her injured back.
“When I had my injury, I didn’t have anything. I started to get desperate, and I was frustrated. Then the door opened for me with this sport," Ruano said.
More than a decade after Ruano swapped the balance beam and vault for a shotgun, her doctor’s advice paid off Wednesday when she won the women’s trap with an Olympic-record score of 45 out of 50.
Ruano closed her eyes and took a deep breath before hitting her 43rd target to make sure Italian silver medalist Silvana Stanco couldn't catch her for the gold. She missed her next two shots after that, but it didn’t matter.
It was a stint volunteering at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro that put her on the path back to elite-level sports.
“I said to myself, ‘If I can’t be there as an athlete, maybe I can be there as a volunteer’, so I applied,” she said. “They put me on shooting, and I was able to watch my teammates. I could see the competition, and that was the moment that inspired me to think, ‘OK, maybe if not in gymnastics, I can do it in shooting.’”
Ruano placed 26th at the last Olympics in Tokyo, shortly after her father had died.
Coming into Paris, though, she was the defending Pan-American Games champion.
Now she has given her country an Olympic gold medal, a day after Jean Pierre Brol won bronze in the men's trap to claim Guatemala’s first medal since race walker Erick Barrondo’s silver at the 2012 London Olympics.
Stanco won the silver on 40 and Australia's Penny Smith took the bronze.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
Guatemala athlete Adriana Olive Ruano leaves after completing Trap women qualification round, in Chateauroux, France, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Guatemala's Adriana Oliva Ruano ejects an empty cartridge as she competes in the Trap women's final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Chateauroux, France. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Guatemala's Adriana Oliva Ruano, center, Italy's Silvana Maria Stanco, left, and Australia's Penny Smith celebrate after winning the first, second and third positions in the Trap women's final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Chateauroux, France. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Guatemala's Adriana Oliva Ruano competes in the Trap women's final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Chateauroux, France. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Top nominee “Shogun” won a staggering 14 awards in a near-sweep Sunday night at the Creative Arts Emmys, while “The Bear” won seven including guest actress in a comedy series for Jamie Lee Curtis.
Presenters were saying “Shogun” all night at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on the second night of the two-night Creative Arts Emmys, where awards are handed out that don't quite make the main Primetime Emmys ceremony. That will be held Sept. 15 and air on ABC with hosts Dan and Eugene Levy.
“Shogun," the FX series about political machinations in feudal Japan, won 14 of the 16 trophies it could have claimed on Sunday night, including Emmys for costumes, makeup, editing, stunts and cinematography, along with a best guest actor in a drama Emmy for Néstor Carbonell.
As he accepted, Carbonell thanked the crew, then marveled at how many of them were in the audience.
“You’re all here! You’re all nominated!” Carbonell said. “I love the team sport of this.”
The wins mean that “Shogun” is already guaranteed to have the highest total after the main ceremony on Sept. 15, though its biggest nominations are yet to come, including best drama and best actor in a drama for star Hiroyuki Sanada.
Curtis was emotional on stage after winning her first Emmy 18 months after winning her first Oscar for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
“I’m the luckiest girl in the world,” Curtis said backstage. “I just never thought I would get to do work at this level of depth and complexity and intelligence. It’s been the thrill of my creative life these last couple of years.”
Asked if she could win a Grammy and a Tony to make it an EGOT, she said no way.
“I can't sing at all,” she said, “and I've never been on stage.”
The songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, however, did become the 20th and 21st members of the elite EGOT club when they won their first Emmy for a song they co-wrote for “Only Murders in the Building.” The duo had previously won an Oscar for “La La Land” and a Grammy and Tony for “Dear Evan Hansen.”
Curtis won for the season two “Bear” episode “Fishes," in which she played the mother of star Jeremy Allen White at a nightmare holiday family gathering. Jon Bernthal, who played White's big brother in the episode, won best guest actor in a comedy.
Michaela Coel won best guest actress in a comedy series for her appearance on “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”
“Shogun” shook up the Emmys race when it switched from the limited series to the drama series category in May, and many Emmys were lost because of it Sunday.
It won so steadily that the few who beat it — it lost only in two music-composition categories — felt the need to comment on it.
“I didn’t write a speech, because there was no way I was beating ‘Shogun’ tonight," said Siddharta Khosa, who won best music composition for a series for “Only Murders in the Building.”
When Eric Andŕe was asked only one question in the media room after winning his first Emmy for his performance on his self-titled talk show, he said, with fake exasperation, “Sorry I'm not on Shogun!"
Maya Rudolph and Angela Bassett were among the Creative Arts winners on Saturday night, which focused on reality and variety TV. Rudolph won her sixth career Emmy, for her voice-over work on the animated “Big Mouth.” Bassett won her first, for her narration of the National Geographic wildlife documentary series “Queens.”
Both nights of the show will be edited into a single 2 1/2 hour show that will air on FXX on Sept. 14 and stream the following day on Hulu.
For more coverage on this year’s Emmy Awards and recent television shows, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/television
Dick Van Dyke poses with his award for outstanding variety special (Pre-Recorded) for “Dick Van Dyke 98 Years Of Magic” on night one of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Garcelle Beauvais attends night one of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Maya Rudolph poses with her Emmy for outstanding character voice-over performance for “Big Mouth" on night one of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Angela Bassett poses with her award for outstanding narrator for "Queens" on night one of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Maya Rudolph kisses her trophy for outstanding character voice-over performance on “Big Mouth" on night one of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
FILE - An Emmy statue appears one stage at the 49th annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Pasadena, Calif., on June 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
Jamie Lee Curtis attends the premiere of "The Last Showgirl" during the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, at Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
