Ecuador: Sprinter Álex Quiñónez Brings Country to Standstill During Final · Global Voices
Daniela Gallardo

This post is part of our special coverage London 2012 Olympics.
Ecuador has a total of 36 athletes representing the country and participating in 11 events at the London 2012 Olympics. Despite the president of the Ecuadorian National Olympic Commitee, Danilo Carrera [es] feeling confident about success in canoeing and boxing, it was actually Álex Quiñónez, a sprinter from the coastal city of Esmeraldas, who had the whole country sitting on the edge of their seats as the people of Ecuador took to Twitter and other social networking sites to offer him support. Quiñónez was the only South American athlete to qualify for the 200m finals, having finished in seventh place.
YouTube user paul21042007 uploaded the following video of Álex Quiñónez after he got through to the final:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2n2DeW5DAs
Quiñónez (@AlexQ1989) [es] reached the finals of the Olympics for the first time in his sporting career. Together with this, Quiñónez's popularity also rose rapidly on social networking sites. To highlight this, having got through to the semifinals, the sprinter only had 50 followers on Twitter growing to 246 fifteen minutes later. At the time of writing this post, Quiñónez had more than 12,000 followers. Messages of support from the people of Ecuador can be found by searching on the hashtag, #AlexQuiñonez [es].
On August 7, the Ecuadorian National Olympic Committee (@ECUADORolimpico) [es] posted a tweet:
@ECUADORolimpico: Por fin nombre de Ecuador retumba en Londres, alex quinonez gana au [sic] serie y pasa a semifinales wn [sic] 200m.
Journalism student, Christian Pinzón (@Khriz199218) [es], wrote:
@Khriz199218: No hay duda que el mayor logro que ha realizado por el momento #AlexQuiñonez es paralizar todo un país, solo porque eres #OrgulloEcuatoriano
Presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) [es] tweeted:
@LassoGuillermo: Gracias Álex Quiñónez por llevarnos a esta final olímpica de los 200 metros planos. Una gran representación para nuestro país.
William Vite Huerta (@wvite) [es] looks forward to the 2016 Olympics:
@wvite: Lo de #AlexQuiñonez fue algo de destacar, en #Brasil2016 creo que será otra historia, a prepararse…
Álex Quiñónez competing in the 200m final in the London 2012 Olympics. Photography courtesy of Flickr user Alexandre Moreau | Photography. Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Journalist and television presenter María Teresa Guerrero (@flacaguerrerog) [es] also congratulated Quiñónez:
@flacaguerrerog: Estar en una final es pa los grandes!! Mi respeto y admiración para #AlexQuinonez #poderesmeraldeño
Angie Pérez (@anni1595) [es] tweeted:
@anni1595: Quizas no es muy conocido, pero que orgullo que un ecuatoriano sea el septimo mejor del mundo #AlexQuiñonez!
Juan Fernando Velasco (@juanfervelasco) [es], a singer from the capital city of Ecuador, Quito, also posted a tweet about Quiñónez ranking seventh in the world:
@juanfervelasco: Querido Alex Quiñónez: Qué se siente ser el número 7 de entre 7 mil millones?! Grande compatriota!!
The national media also reported that the Ecuadorian government offered a brand new home [es] for the sprinter and his family to acknowledge his achievement in London 2012. Sports Minister Jose Francisco Cevallos confirmed this news. It goes without saying that the athlete will return to Ecuador feeling proud with his head held high sound in the knowledge that he has achieved something great.
This post is part of our special coverage London 2012 Olympics.