Star and Stripes: Puerto Rico's Own Olympic Dreams - Wall Street Journal - 5/6/08

U.S. Commonwealth Competes Like a Nation; Boxer Arroyo's Colors -- McJoe Arroyo, in red, at the AIBA World Boxing Championships semifinals in November.

The American flag and the flag of Puerto Rico fly side by side everywhere on this island. But there's one place where Puerto Rico's flies all by itself: on a silver pole in a clump of palm trees at the Albergue Olímpico -- home to Puerto Rico's ferociously patriotic Olympic athletes.

"My pride is here in Puerto Rico," McJoe Arroyo said one day in the Albergue's sweat-scented boxing gym. The 119-pound bantamweight, 22 years old, sat wrapping his fists in Everlast tape. "I represent the colors of my flag," he said.

It was mentioned that he is an American citizen and that the U.S. flag is also red, white and blue.

McJoe Arroyo, in red, at the AIBA World Boxing Championships semifinals in November. "It's a different color blue," said Mr. Arroyo.

In Beijing in August, 192 countries and 13 "entities" will carry their flags at the Olympics. Puerto Rico is an entity. Like the others -- a miscellany of islands and quasistates -- it goes to the Games for the glory of its sports and in spite of its history. This year, though, the oddity of Puerto Rico's full Olympic membership and its half-in-half-out status as a commonwealth of the U.S. is a subject of conversation for two exceptional reasons:

One, on June 1, the Democrats, having switched from caucuses to a popular vote, will hold Puerto Rico's first presidential primary. With 63 delegates at stake, the primary might not have any impact on the race by then, but it does rub in the fact that four million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico still aren't allowed to vote in the presidential election.

Two, McJoe Arroyo has a shot at an Olympic medal.

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