MLB's Dominican pride Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto & others celebrate Marileidy Paulino's historic 400m gold at Paris Olympics

Dominican sprinter Marileidy Paulino made history on Friday at the Paris Olympics by winning a gold medal in the women's 400m race.

After earning two silver medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (women's 400m and 4x400 mixed relay), Paulino made history by becoming the first Dominican woman to win gold. It is also the first gold for the Dominican Republic at the 2024 Paris Olympics, totaling three medals (one gold and two bronze).

Congratulatory messages for Paulino’s accomplishment are storming social media. MLB stars and Dominican natives Juan Soto (New York Yankees), Fernando Tatis Jr. (San Deigo Padres) and Jeremy Pena (Houston Astros) also gave a shout-out to her.

“🇩🇴🔥👏🏽,” Tatis Jr. captioned in his story.

Image Credit: Instagram / @juansoto_25, @tatis and @jpena221

Paulino set the Olympic record in the women’s 400m, previously held by French Olympian Marie-José Pérec (clocked 48.25 in 1996 Atlanta). She clocked 48.17 to win the gold and set a new milestone.

“If it is necessary (to break the record) to win the gold medal, I will do it,” Paulino said, according to NBC New York.

Salwa Eid Naser won silver for Bahrain (48.53) and Natalia Kaczmarek won bronze for Poland (48.98).

Dominican heritage in MLB

Dominican heritage has a large presence in MLB. Many teams have players from the region who have been dominating the league this season. Among them, some famous names are:

Juan Soto: The 25-year-old Dominican superstar is the fan favorite of long islanders. With a stat line of .305/.431/.584 and an OPS of 1.015 in 112 games, the four-time All-Star aims to win a World Series with the Yankees this year.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado: Two of the Padres' star players hail from the same land as Soto. With the team’s 65-52 season record, they’re trailing the Dodgers (67-49) for the NL West Division pennant.

Teoscar Hernandez: The Dodgers’ two-time All-Star outfielder and 2024 homerun derby winner, Teoscar Hernandez also hails from the Dominican Republic.

Apart from them, Jose Ramirez (Boston Red Sox), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Toronto Blue Jays) and Marcell Ozuna (Atlanta Braves) are also flying the country's flag high in the league.