Mexico at the 2008 Summer Olympics Mexico at the 2008 Summer Olympics Mexico competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The country sent 85 competitors (43 men and 42 women) and participated in 23 sports. Mexico's flag-bearer at the opening ceremony was diver Paola Espinosa. Mexican athletes won two gold medals at the games for the first time since the 1984 Olympics. Mexico sent archers, two men and two women, to the Olympics for the eighth time, and had yet to win an Olympic medal in the sport. Two men received qualifying places in archery, after Luis Velez earned a qualifying spot during the 2007
Rebecca Adlington would not compete in Rio. Adlington set a new British, Commonwealth, European and Olympic record of 8:18.06 in the preliminary heats of the women's 800-metre freestyle on 14 August 2008. She went on to win the Olympic 800-metre freestyle final on 16 August 2008 in a world record time of 8:14.10, her second gold of the tournament, a full six seconds ahead of the silver medalist, and two seconds ahead of the former world record which had been set by Janet Evans when Adlington was 6 months old. At the time, this was swimming's longest standing world record. The Sherwood