Costa Rican swimmer Alondra Ortiz won the women’s 200-meter butterfly at the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games, delivering the first swimming gold medal at the regional competition in 20 years. Ortiz completed Wednesday’s final in 2 minutes, 13.73 seconds, narrowly defeating Colombia’s Stefany Baños in one of the closest races of the Games. Baños touched the wall in 2:13.77, only four-hundredths of a second behind the Costa Rican.
Venezuela’s Leydar Moreno claimed the bronze medal with a time of 2:14.39. The result returned Costa Rica to the top of a Central American and Caribbean Games swimming podium for the first time since Claudia Poll won two gold medals at the 2006 edition in Cartagena, Colombia.
Ortiz, 23, entered the competition as one of the leading athletes in Costa Rica’s delegation. She represented the country at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and has established herself as Costa Rica’s leading swimmer in the butterfly events. She also won the 200-meter butterfly at the 2025 Central American Games in Guatemala, where she finished in 2:15.72 and set a Games record. Her winning time in Santo Domingo was nearly two seconds faster.
Ortiz’s victory initially raised Costa Rica’s total at Santo Domingo 2026 to four gold medals, two silver medals and nine bronze medals. Our medal count has continued to grow as the competition progresses. Costa Rica sent 268 athletes to compete in 28 sports at the Games, which opened on July 24 and continue through August 8. More than 6,000 athletes from across Central America and the Caribbean are participating in the centennial edition of the regional event.
For Ortiz, the margin of victory made the result particularly dramatic. After 200 meters of racing, less than the blink of an eye separated gold from silver. Her final touch was enough to end Costa Rica’s two-decade wait for another swimming title at the Central American and Caribbean Games and add another major result to her international career.
