Gemma Mengual

In a sport long dominated by just three nations (United States, Canada and Japan), Gemma Mengual and Andrea Fuentes made Spain only the sixth nation to medal in synchronized swimming at the Olympics. Behind the untouchable pair of Anastasiya Dayvdova and Anastasiya Yermakova, the Spanish duo placed second. They repeated that performance as a part of the team competition, again finishing behind Russia. But Mengual was not a stranger to the world of synchronized swimming, having earned numerous medals at both the World Championships and European Championships already, earning a total of 19 World Championship medals in her career. Her best result came in 2009, when she won the free routine for teams, and placed second in all five other competitions, the free and technical routines for solo, duet and team. She was even more successful at the 2008 European Championships, where she won all four titles available, adding to her gold medal from 2004 and nine silvers and three bronzes won at earlier occasions. In early 2012, she announced she would not compete in the London Olympics.