Álvaro Gaxiola
Juan Álvaro José Gaxiola Robles (born January 26, 1937 in Guadalajara ; † August 18, 2003 ibid) was a Mexican diver who competed in three Olympic Games and won a silver medal in front of a home crowd at the age of 31.
Álvaro Gaxiola made his breakthrough to world class at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago. While three Americans won the medals in artificial jumping, Gaxiola won the high diving in front of the American Don Harper and his compatriot Juan Botella . At its Olympic premiere at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Gaxiola was eliminated from the tower as 20th in qualification. From the 3-meter board, he took sixth place in both qualification and preliminary competition. He improved in the final and finished fourth, but was almost twelve points behind his compatriot Juan Botella, who won bronze.
In 1963 Gaxiola won another medal at the Pan American Games in Sao Paulo, behind the American Robert Webster , he took second place. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, Gaxiola was unable to qualify for the finals either from the board (15th place) or from the tower (18th place).
In 1968 Mexico City hosted the Olympic Games . Of the total of five Olympic medals that Mexico had won at the four previous Olympic Games, four medals had been won by water divers Joaquín Capilla and Juan Botella. And so the audience expected a lot from the competitions. In the two women's competitions, none of the Mexicans qualified for the final, in artificial jumping only Luis de Rivera reached the final and finished in fourth place. In the last diving competition, the men's high diving, all three Mexicans qualified for the final. Rivera finished in seventh place, José Robinson reached fifth place and the veteran Álvaro Gaxiola received slightly better marks than the Americans and won silver, almost ten points behind the Italian Klaus Dibiasi .
Álvaro Gonzalez studied and trained at the University of Michigan . His brother Alejandro Gaxiola took part in the Olympic swimming competitions in 1960.
Web links
- Alvaro Gaxiola in the database of Olympedia.org (English)
- Portrait at the Mexican Olympic Committee (Spanish)
- Medalist at Pan American Games
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gaxiola, Álvaro |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gaxiola Robles, Juan Álvaro José (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mexican diver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 26, 1937 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Guadalajara |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 18, 2003 |
| Place of death | Guadalajara |