Francisca Valeria Crovetto Chadid (born April 27, 1990) is a Chilean sport shooter who competes in skeet. She won the gold medal in women's skeet at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, becoming the first Chilean woman to win an Olympic gold medal and only the third Chilean athlete to do so, after tennis players Nicolás Massú and Fernando González at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
A four-time Olympian, Crovetto has represented Chile at the 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 Games, and was Chile's flag bearer, alongside Marco Grimalt, at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games. In April 2022 she set a world record in the qualification round of a World Cup event in Lonato, Italy, hitting all 125 of 125 targets. She has also won gold at the 2023 Pan American Games and the 2010 South American Games, along with several further Pan American, South American, and Bolivarian Games medals. In May 2025 she became the top-ranked woman in skeet shooting on the International Shooting Sport Federation world ranking.
Away from competition, Crovetto studied biotechnology engineering at the University of Chile before suspending her studies to pursue shooting full-time, received Chile's National Sports Award in 2019, and became a mother in September 2025, returning to international competition four months later. In December 2025, she declined an offer from president-elect José Antonio Kast to serve as Chile's Minister of Sport.
Early life and education Crovetto was born in San Miguel, a commune in Santiago, to a family with Arab and Italian roots. Her interest in shooting began at age three, when her father, Juan Francisco Crovetto, took her to the club where he practiced; she fired her first shot at five and began training formally at 13, principally at her family's club in Calera de Tango and at the Chilean Air Force's shooting club in El Bosque. Between 2003 and 2004 she experimented with both sporting clays and Olympic skeet before settling on the latter.
Educated at the Princess Anne School in San Miguel, Crovetto enrolled in 2010 in the molecular biotechnology engineering program at the University of Chile. Although the university offered her academic accommodations to balance study and sport, she suspended her studies in 2011 to pursue shooting professionally after qualifying for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Early in her career she trained under coach Angel Marentis; by 2024 she was training for part of each year in Italy under an Italy-based coach, traveling between there and competitions across Europe.
Sporting career
Early career and the 2012 Olympics Crovetto made her international debut in multi-sport competition at 17, finishing fourth in skeet at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. She had her breakthrough at the 2010 South American Games in Medellín, where she won gold with a score of 65 out of 75 targets; that year she also won the Pan American Championship in Rio de Janeiro, the Continental Cup Final, and the Ibero-American Championship in Guatemala.
In 2011 she won silver at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, a result that qualified her for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. There, competing as Chile's sole shooter in the women's skeet event, she placed eighth in qualification, missing the six-woman final by a single target behind Sweden's Therese Lundqvist, with a total of 66 hits.
2013–2016: Bolivarian Games and Rio Olympics Crovetto won gold in skeet at the 2013 Bolivarian Games in Trujillo. At the 2014 South American Games, held on home soil in Santiago, she won silver, and later that year she placed fifth at the World Championship in Granada, Spain.
In 2015, Crovetto won bronze at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. She qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after finishing seventh at a World Cup event in Qəbələ, Azerbaijan, and, again the country's sole representative in shooting, finished 19th at the Games. In 2017 she won her second Bolivarian Games gold medal, in Santa Marta, Colombia.
2017–2021: Pan American and Tokyo Olympics Crovetto won bronze at the 2018 South American Games in Cochabamba and silver at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima. She went on to become the first Chilean athlete of any sport to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics (postponed to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic), and was chosen, alongside Marco Grimalt, to carry the Chilean flag at the opening ceremony in Tokyo. She finished 23rd in the women's skeet event. In recognition of her results and public profile, she received Chile's National Sports Award in 2019.
2022–2024: World record and Olympic gold In April 2022, at a World Cup stage in Lonato, Italy, Crovetto broke 125 of 125 targets in qualification, setting a new world record in women's skeet. The mark stood as the world qualification record heading into the 2024 Summer Olympics. Despite fracturing her left hand in 2023, she recovered in time to win gold at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, her first Pan American title after two silvers and a bronze in previous editions.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Crovetto won the gold medal in women's skeet, defeating Great Britain's Amber Rutter in a shoot-off after the pair finished tied on 55 hits apiece through 60 targets; Crovetto prevailed 7–6 in the tiebreaker. The result gave Chile its first Olympic medal since 2008 and made Crovetto the first Chilean woman, and only the third Chilean athlete overall, to win Olympic gold. Chile's only previous female Olympic medalist, Marlene Ahrens, had won javelin silver at the 1956 Summer Olympics; Crovetto has cited Ahrens as an inspiration.
Following her win, Crovetto was received by President Gabriel Boric at La Moneda Palace and, at the Chilean Olympic Committee's year-end awards gala, was named the country's outstanding athlete of 2024.
2025–2026: World No. 1 ranking, motherhood, and return to competition In May 2025, following results that included eighth place at a World Cup event in Buenos Aires and eleventh in Lima, Crovetto rose to first place in the ISSF women's skeet world ranking, with 5,535 points, ahead of American Austen Smith and Italian Diana Bacosi. That same spring, she announced she was expecting her first child with her husband, businessman Juan Enrique Byers. She continued to train through much of her pregnancy, including competing at two World Cup events, and spoke publicly about the physical demands of doing so.
Her son, Giuseppe, was born on September 25, 2025. Crovetto later said that some of the public reaction to her pregnancy and motherhood, including suggestions that she would now retire, had been frustrating, and that she wanted to demonstrate that a woman could be "both a mother and successful in what she does". She returned to competition in January 2026, four months after giving birth.
In December 2025, Crovetto declined an offer from president-elect José Antonio Kast, following his runoff victory, to become Chile's Minister of Sport, citing her ongoing athletic career and family commitments. In a subsequent interview, she said she hoped to remain competitive through the 2028 and 2032 Olympic Games and expressed concern about a proposal to merge the sports ministry with another government portfolio. She continues to serve as the athletes' representative on the board of the Chilean Olympic Committee.
In September 2026, competing at the 2026 South American Games in Santa Fe in her first major multi-sport event since becoming a mother, Crovetto topped the qualification round with a Games-record 119 points before losing the final to Argentina's Mara Kucharski, 26–24, taking silver. It was her fifth consecutive medal at the South American Games.
Personal life Crovetto married commercial engineer Juan Enrique Byers after the couple announced their engagement in January 2021; they were married in a civil ceremony in November 2022. Their son, Giuseppe, was born in September 2025.
Awards and recognition Crovetto has repeatedly been named Chile's best skeet or trap shooter by the Círculo de Periodistas Deportivos de Chile (Chilean Sports Journalists' Circle), receiving the honor eleven times between 2011 and 2024: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
She was named Team Chile's best athlete in 2015, received Chile's National Sports Award in 2019, and was named Chile's overall best athlete of 2024 by the Círculo de Periodistas Deportivos following her Olympic gold medal. In 2024 she was also included in El Mercurio's list of 100 women leaders in Chile.
International results Crovetto's results representing Chile, under Chilean federation support.
Year Competition Location Event Result20072007 Pan American GamesRio de Janeiro, BrazilSkeet4th2009Youth Continental CupConcepción, ChileSkeet1st2010Continental CupGuatemala City, GuatemalaSkeet1st2010Ibero-American ChampionshipGuatemala City, GuatemalaSkeet1st2010Pan American ChampionshipRio de Janeiro, BrazilSkeet1st2010World Junior ChampionshipMunich, GermanySkeet14th20102010 South American GamesMedellín, ColombiaSkeet1st20112011 Pan American GamesGuadalajara, MexicoSkeet2nd2011World CupConcepción, ChileSkeet21st2011World CupBeijing, ChinaSkeet35th2011World ChampionshipBelgrade, SerbiaSkeet27th2011World CupMaribor, SloveniaSkeet51st2012World CupLonato, ItalySkeet3rd2012World CupTucson, United StatesSkeet5th2012World ChampionshipMaribor, SloveniaSkeet10th2012World CupLondon, United KingdomSkeet26th2012Olympic GamesLondon, United KingdomSkeet8th2013World CupGranada, SpainSkeet8th2013World ChampionshipLima, PeruSkeet32nd2013World CupAcapulco, MexicoSkeet10th2013World CupNicosia, CyprusSkeet17th2013World CupAl Ain, United Arab EmiratesSkeet32nd20132013 Bolivarian GamesTrujillo, PeruSkeet1st2014World ChampionshipGranada, SpainSkeet5th2014World CupTucson, United StatesSkeet7th2014Pan American ChampionshipGuadalajara, MexicoSkeet7th2014World CupMunich, GermanySkeet31st20142014 South American GamesSantiago, ChileSkeet2nd2015World CupQəbələ, AzerbaijanSkeet7th2015World ChampionshipLonato, ItalySkeet12th2015World CupLarnaca, CyprusSkeet12th2015World CupAl Ain, United Arab EmiratesSkeet24th2015World CupAcapulco, MexicoSkeet30th20152015 Pan American GamesToronto, CanadaSkeet3rd2016World CupRio de Janeiro, BrazilSkeet16th2016World CupSan MarinoSkeet17th2016World CupNicosia, CyprusSkeet8th2016Olympic GamesRio de Janeiro, BrazilSkeet19th2017World ChampionshipMoscow, RussiaSkeet32nd20172017 Bolivarian GamesSanta Marta, ColombiaSkeet1st20192019 Pan American GamesLima, PeruSkeet2nd2021Olympic GamesTokyo, JapanSkeet23rd20222022 South American GamesAsunción, ParaguaySkeet2nd20232023 Pan American GamesSantiago, ChileSkeet1st2024Olympic GamesParis, FranceSkeet1st20262026 South American GamesSanta Fe, ArgentinaSkeet2nd
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