After Panhandling His Way to the Rio Olympics, Misael Rodríguez Secures Mexico Its First Medal

*El Chino Rodriguez scored a medal for Mexico. A year ago he begged on the streets to raise money to travel to the qualifiers in Qatar. VL

By Andrew S. Vargas, Remezcla

Mexican sports fans can now rest easy – the proud nation of 120 million has finally secured its first Olympic medal at Rio 2016. Misael “El Chino” Rodríguez, a 22-year-old boxer from Chihuahua, will be fighting in the middleweight semi-finals with a guaranteed bronze medal and a shot at the gold.

The news comes as a tremendous relief to a delegation living through an Olympics that one pundit dubbed “the worst sporting failure in Mexican history” – though even Rodriguez’s win has emerged as another chapter in the ongoing national conversation surrounding the country’s poor performance in Rio.

Late last year, Rodríguez joined other Olympic hopefuls from the Mexican Boxing Federation to literally beg for money on the streets . . . READ MORE