Argentine BMX cyclist, Jose Torres Gil, became the first gold medal contributor for his country at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Jose Torres Gil won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the BMX freestyle cycling event. The 29-year-old cyclist was certain to win the 2024 Olympic gold medal after recording a score of 94.82 in the final match. Meanwhile, the silver medal was taken by Britain’s Kieran Reilly whose score of 93.76 was enough to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. In addition, France’s Anthony Jeanjean claimed bronze.
Interestingly, FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, was the person who gave the gold medal to Jose Torres Gil. Suddenly, the man known as Maligno received high attention from the Argentine public after achieving glory at the 2024 Olympics.
“I couldn’t understand it, total craziness, it brought tears to my eyes,” was how Torres Gil explained hearing that he would be crowned Olympic champion at the Place de la Concorde, the temporary home of the Urban Sports Park.
Argentine media, TyC Sport, reported that Torres Gil’s Instagram social media followers increased drastically from 100 thousand followers to 390 thousand. In addition, Argentine soccer star, Julian Alvarez, even follows Jose Torres Gil’s Instagram. Not stopping there, Argentine legend Lionel Messi even congratulated Jose Torres Gil on his success at the 2024 Olympics.
“Congratulations, enjoy that gold medal very much,” Messi said on his personal Instagram social media. The 29-year-old cyclist also admitted that he did not expect to receive congratulations from Messi. “When I saw what Messi did, it was crazy. I wanted to answer him straight away, but I didn’t,” said Torres Gil. “So, I waited to think about what I should say to (Messi),” he added.
Now, Torres Gil has a desire to meet Julian Alvarez and Lionel Messi in person. “I want to meet him (Alvarez),” said Torres Gill about his desire to meet Alvarez, who is currently helping Argentina at the 2024 Olympics. “Then, I want what everyone in the world wants, which is to meet Messi, if I pass through Miami,” he said.
