Telemundo and NBC UNVIERSO launched their promotional campaign for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics, "Los Juegos Olímpicos, el evento que nos une a todos" (The Olympic Games, the Event that Unites Us All). Profiling the personal histories of four US Hispanic athletes - Diana Taurasi, Danell Leyva, Steven López and Leo Manzano - who are proud to be representing the United States in the next Olympics, the campaign continues the storytelling tradition that has characterized TELEMUNDO's sports coverage since the 2004 Athens Games and is part of several spots with moments and quotes from Hispanic athletes from the United States and abroad. All those clips will air on Telemundo and NBC UNIVERSO until the Rio 2016 opening ceremony.
Diana Taurasi is a well-known basketball player from California. Her father is Italian and her mother is from Argentina, and her childhood was split between the United States and that South American country. She has played professional for the WNBA with the Phoenix Mercury since 2004 and was part of the team that won the under-18 women's tournament in Argentina in 2000. She made her Olympic debut representing the United States at the 2004 Athens Games, helping her team take home the gold at that event as well. She was named Women's Basketball Player of the Year in 2012 and Most Valuable Player in the 2014 WNBA finals.
Danell Leyva was born into a family of gymnasts in Matanzas, Cuba. His specialties are the parallel and horizontal bars. In 2009, at age 17, he became the youngest member of the US Senior Gymnastics Team, going on to win the bronze at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastic Championships in Tokyo, Japan. That same year, he won the gold medal at the first Mexican Gymnastics Open in Acapulco. He competed in his first Olympics in London 2012, where he won the bronze medal in the individual all-around.
Steven López represents Team US in taekwondo. Born in Nicaragua and raised in New York, López holds five world championship titles and three Olympic medals: two gold (Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004) and one bronze (Beijing 2008). He won the gold at the Pan American qualifiers for the Rio 2016, which will mark his fifth Olympic appearance after a modest showing at the London 2012 games.
Leonel "Leo" Manzano is a Mexican-American middle-distance TRACK AND FIELD athlete specializing in the 1500 meters. A native of Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, he moved to Texas with his family at the age of four. Following a successful college career, Manzano came in tenth place in the semifinals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He won the silver in the 1500 meters in London 2012, bringing home a medal for the US in that event for the first time since the Mexico 1968 games.
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