Athletes with local college ties compete internationally for Colombia

A pair of athletes with local ties recently competed in major international events for their native country, Colombia.
Camila Gomez helped Colombia win a silver medal at the Pan American Games earlier this summer. And Santiago Patino played for Colombia’s national soccer team in qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Gomez is a former Miami-Dade College student. Patino played at Florida International University.
Gomez, 24, helped lead Colombia to the gold-medal match at the Pan Ams, where her team fell to the Dominican Republic at Lima, Peru. Still, Gomez left with a pile of awards to accompany her silver medal. The roaming defensive player was named Best Digger, Best Receiver and Best Libero.
The Pan Ams medal is not the first in her collection. She helped Colombia win gold at the 2018 South American Games, and silver at the same event in 2017, a year when she picked up another Best Libero award.
At Miami-Dade, Gomez and the Lady Sharks won back-to-back National Junior College Athletic Association national championships in 2016 and 2017.
Patino, 22, is a forward who was drafted third overall by Orlando City of Major League Soccer this year. He was also invited this year to play for the Colombian U-23 National team after several tryouts.
Patino was born in Orlando and has dual citizenship with the United States and Colombia. He made his professional debut in March against the Montreal Impact, coming on as a 74th minute substitute and assisting a goal in stoppage time. He scored his first goal for Orlando City on July 7 against the Philadelphia Union.