Enriqueta Basilio

Enriqueta Basilio carrying the Olympic torch and lighting the cauldron, becoming the first woman in Olympic history to do so.

Norma Enriqueta "Queta" Basilio Sotelo (15 July 1948 – 26 October 2019) was a Mexican track and field athlete. She was born in Mexicali, capital of Baja California. She came from an athletic family; her father was a cotton farmer. Her Polish coach, Włodzimierz Puzio, moved her from high jumping to hurdling. She made history by becoming the first woman to light the Olympic Cauldron. She was the last torch-bearer of the 19th Summer Olympics in Mexico City on 12 October 1968.

She was a national athletics champion and record-holder in 80 metres hurdles and finished seventh in this event at the 1967 Pan American Games. At the 1968 Olympics she was eliminated in the heats of the 400 metres, 80 metres hurdles and 4 × 100 metres relay events. In 1970, she took bronze in the Central American and Caribbean Games relay.

International competitions