Rio has been home to shattered Olympic and world records. Mónica Puig just joined the pantheon of Olympic heroes.
Puig, the 22-year-old tennis player born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, became the first Puerto Rican athlete to ever win a gold medal for Puerto Rico. She's also the first woman from Puerto Rico to win a medal of any sort. The other two medal winners: Luis Ortiz in 1984 and Jaime Espinal in 2012. They medaled in boxing and freestyle wrestling, respectively.
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Puig's road to Olympic gold wasn't easy as an unseeded competitor. However, that proved no matter for Puig, as the tournament culminated in defeating world No. 2 women's tennis player German Angelique Kerber on Saturday. She's only the second unseeded tennis player to medal at women's tennis since Alicia Molik won bronze at Athens in 2004.
Mirroring her Olympic path, Puig's young career has been a long and trying road since turning pro in 2010. Prior to the Olympics, Puig had only won a single WTA tournament, winning at the Internationaux de Strasbourg in 2014. She was also a finalist at Sydney earlier in 2016. She's also won six singles titles on the ITF circuit during her career.
Brighter days are seemingly ahead for Puig. She's reached the semi-final of four tournaments this year, and peaked at world No. 33, indicating that she's good, and only getting better.
