Pilar Roldán. The day that a Fair Play almost left her without a medal.

On October 20, María del Pilar Roldán won the silver medal at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games

In the individual foil category, and she risked this medal after applying Fair Play in one of her final matches.

On October 19 of that year, in the elimination round, Roldán lost her first two matches against British and Soviet shooters, however, the fencer was able to recover and win her next two matches against the British and German athletes, and this gave her the opportunity to place herself among the top 16 and advance to the semifinals.

The next day, in the morning session, Roldán defeated Hungarian Sakovics and Italian Masciotta, securing her spot in the grand final, which was a round robin format at that time. In that stage, Pilar faced the Soviet athletes Novikova and Gorokhova, the Hungarian Rejto, the French Gapais, and the Swedish Palme.

Roldan lost her first two matches against Novikova and Rejto, but then defeated Gorokhova and Gapais. Finally, her last match would be against the Swedish Kerstin Palme, and the curious thing is that the European athlete was already about to be disqualified for not showing up on time for the match.

Roldan could have easily taken the silver without any problems, but she decided to apply Fair Play by indicating to the judges that she would wait for her opponent and fight fairly for the medal, even knowing that losing could leave her with the bronze or out of the medals, since the round robin final took into account the number of victories and touches in her favor during the stage.

Finally, Pilar won by a score of 3-2 to secure the silver. In the round robin, Roldan obtained three victories and two defeats, with 17 touches in favor and 11 against, while Rejto also finished with three wins and two losses, but with 14 touches in favor and 16 against, earning her the bronze. The gold went to the Soviet Novikova with four wins and one loss.

Thus, Pilar became the first Mexican woman to step onto the podium at the Olympic Games in Mexico 1968, and in 2015 she received the World Fair Play Award from the International Fair Play Committee for her sportsmanship during that Olympic edition.