Gabriela Rodríguez Garza Reloads for Paris 2024

Gabriela Rodríguez Garza, the national shotgun shooting team member, will spend four months in Taranto, Italy as part of her preparation for Paris 2024; this will be her second Olympic Games and her goal is to reach the podium of honor.

In an interview with the National Commission of Physical Culture and Sports (CONADE), the Pan American runner-up shared details before her preparation for the Olympics. “On April 28 I fly to Italy and from there until Paris 2024, I will stay in Europe with my Italian personal trainer, Pietro Genga; I have been training with him for almost three years and I will be there throughout my preparation. In May I have my first World Cup, which is in Azerbaijan; the World Cup in Lonato, Italy and the Olympic Games. Basically, there are two international competitions before the top event.

The 27-year-old shooter achieved her Olympic qualification after winning the silver medal at the Pan American Games Santiago 2023, where she starred in a close final with Chilean Francisca Crovetto, which was defined in shoot off (sudden death).

“Thank God I had a good performance and achieved the goal I was looking for, which was to obtain an Olympic place for Mexico and be able to go to my second Olympic Games. The truth is that it was a tough competition; I felt very strong from the beginning, from training and in the end we managed to get ahead and shoot an excellent result which was 120-125, one of my best in international competitions and with that to be in first place, tied in the final; it was a Pan American record and in the tiebreaker we won second place, we were very even,” recalled the representative of Coahuila.

The Mexican highlighted that she feels stronger and more confident in herself, regarding her Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020. “I have had a radical change in my results, in my growth, added to the fact that I have more experience in more competitions; I have had the opportunity to achieve better international results and more exposure in tournaments,” she explained.

The national team started her competitive year with two silver medals in international competitions in preparation for the Olympic Games.

“Paris is getting closer, I already had my first two competitions of the year in January, a competition in Egypt where we won the silver medal in mixed teams and in the Championship of the Americas that was just in the Dominican Republic, I had a very good classification, 121-125 that left me in second place for the final that the result was not as expected, and I was in fourth place; in mixed teams we again entered the final in first place with 144 and there we won the silver medal. We have good results so far, but we also have a lot of work to do to get to Paris in the best possible shape,” she said.

About his expectations in his second Olympic Games, he highlighted: “In Tokyo I was 12th, it was a good result, 118 out of 125, which at the time was my highest mark in international competition, I was one plate away from the final. In Paris 2024, my expectation is to maintain a qualifying result, to get into the final, that is, 120 or higher; 121 or 122 would ideally be the goal, with that to get into the final and fight for the gold medal in the Olympic final”.