Espinal, Jaime

Jaime Espinal was born in 1984 in the Dominican Republic . When he was five years old, his family moved to Puerto Rico , where Jaime attended a Baptist school. At the age of nine, he began to engage in wrestling at the suggestion of coach Pedro Rojas.

In 1999, the Espinal family moved again, this time to New York . There, the Puerto Rican encountered manifestations of racism , often participated in street fights. After one of the brawls, he was stabbed, Espinal decided to return to Puerto Rico. There he did not engage in wrestling, but was a breakdancer and cheerleader , playing basketball at the university level. Then he received a bachelor 's degree in computer design.

At the insistence of the first coach, Rojas Espinal again began to engage in wrestling. To prepare for the Games of Central America and the Caribbean , which in 2010 were to be held in Puerto Rican Mayaguez, he trained for nine months in Cuba . Preparation was not in vain and he won a gold medal at this championship in the category up to 84 kg.

At the 2011 Pan American Games, Espinal took fifth place, but in the same year won the Caribbean Qualification Tournament and received the right to participate in the London Olympics .

At the Olympics in the first round, he defeated the Nigerian Andrew Dick , then defeated the Georgian wrestler David Marsagishvili and in the semifinals of the Belarusian Soslan Gattsiev . In the decisive battle, Espinal lost to the Azerbaijani wrestler Sharif Sharifov and won the silver medal.

He won a silver medal at the 2019 Pan American Championship .

• Jaime Espinal - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Jaime Espinal - Profile at International Wrestling Database