Olympic trap shooter Adriana Ruano was seen signing autographs and speaking to the press in Paris on Friday after becoming Guatemala's first-ever Olympic gold medallist with a record-breaking score of 45 out of 50.

"Well, I am very happy; I still don't think I have realized what I have achieved, but now everything has happened very fast; from that last shot until now, it's been a daze, but very happy," the athlete said.

"Many tears also from this process. The process, to see this reflected with this medal, to see the work we have put in with my psychologist, my coach, my teammates," she added.

Ruano was previously a formidable gymnast and was training for the 2011 world championships when she suffered a career-ending spinal injury at age 16.

"My dream was always to go to the Olympic Games and represent Guatemala in gymnastics," the Guatemalan sports star continued. "Well, at that moment, I said, well, maybe I didn't make it as an athlete."

Ruano attended the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as a volunteer, where she found inspiration as she watched the Guatemalan team participating in the trap shooting event.

In 2021, Ruano competed as a trap shooter at the Tokyo Olympics but placed a lowly 26th at the games, which started shortly after her father's death.

"Tokyo was, I think, the worst moment that I have lived emotionally. But thank God I have also had many people around me who have supported me," the Guatemalan sharpshooter said.

"I started working with my psychologist, Ricardo Gonzalez, so he supported me in the whole process. And then in the year 2022, we started working with our coach, Pedro Martin Farisa, who has also taken me by the hand in this process," she continued.

It comes after Ruano's Guatemalan counterpart, Jean Pierre Brol, won bronze in the men's trap final last Thursday, the country's second-ever Olympic medal.