Bogotá, Jul 3 (EFE).- Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Sports Minister Luz Cristina López on Wednesday handed over the national flag to the Colombian delegation that will compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics, made up of 87 athletes – 50 women and 37 men – the sports ministry reported.
Colombia’s flag bearers during the opening ceremony of the Paris Games will be Flor Denis Ruiz, world runner-up in javelin throwing, and Kevin Quintero, world champion cyclist in the keirin event.
The president of the Colombian Olympic Committee (COC), Ciro Solano Hurtado, highlighted that this entity is celebrating its 88th anniversary, “the same number of athletes qualified this year,” a figure that exceeds that of the Tokyo 2020 Games, in which 71 Colombian athletes participated.
The Colombian president congratulated the athletes present and hoped that they “may enjoy those moments that are so small in time but so important in a person’s life,” after receiving the official Colombian delegation shirt from the flag bearers.
With tennis player Camila Osorio, Colombia’s 88th place for these games after her victory in the first round of Wimbledon, there are 50 women qualified, making this edition the third with the highest number of Colombian women, only surpassed by the 73 in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and the 58 in London 2012.
Colombia will participate in 17 sports: weightlifting, boxing, athletics, judo, wrestling, cycling, gymnastics, archery, triathlon, equestrian, canoeing, swimming, sailing, fencing, golf, skateboarding and women’s soccer: one more discipline than in Tokyo.
This year, the Colombian government has allocated a budget of almost 120 billion pesos (about 29 million dollars or 27 million euros) for the preparation of its athletes for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which will take place from July 26 to August 11. EFE
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2024-07-03 18:23:20
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