Catalan swimmer Mireia Belmonte brings first gold for Spain at Rio Olympics
Mireia Belmonte won the 200-metre butterfly this Wednesday and became the first Spanish woman to win an Olympic swimming gold medal. The 25-year-old, trained at Club Natació Sabadell, not only improved her result obtained four years ago in London, where she obtained the silver medal, but registered the fastest time so far this year, 2 minutes 4.85 seconds, beating Australian Maddie Groves by three hundredths of a second. World champion Natsumi Hoshi came third. Belmonte’s gold is to be added to the bronze in the women’s 400m individual medley on Saturday, which was also the first for Spain in any sport at Rio Olympics. The Catalan swimmer’s four medal career haul makes her Spain’s most successful swimmer.