Star snowboarder Regino Hernandez made headlines when he won a bronze medal for snowboard cross at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, which was particularly significant for being Spain’s first medal in the discipline for 26 years.
Hernandez was born in Ceuta, an autonomous city Spain which borders on the north coast of Africa. Despite never having won an Olympic gold medal, his career has been spectacular. He continues to compete in professional snowboarding and has many supporters on Twitter and Instagram. Hernandez occasionally shares pictures of himself working out or sporting a medal, as well as practising on the slopes. On Instagram @reginoherma3, he boasts more than 12,000 followers, while on Twitter @Reginoherma has a further 3,000 followers.
Hernandez claimed gold at the FIS Junior World Championships in 2011, which were held in Valmalenco, Italy. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the snowboarder competed in the Olympics for the first time, placing 31st. Before he could advance to the quarterfinals, Hernandez was eliminated. He competed in the Sochi Olympics four years later and made it to the quarterfinals before being ousted and placing 21st. His native country served as the site of his maiden World Cup podium in 2014, when he finished third in La Molina, a ski resort in the Pyrenees mountains of northeastern Spain. Hernandez had improved by 2018 and the higher quality of his general performance bore fruit at the Olympics.