By Gerardo Laborde
MONTEVIDEO, July 15 (Xinhua) — Uruguayan athletes will have few opportunities to climb onto the podium during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but their dream remains in a country almost monopolized by football.
Uruguay won its first Olympic gold medal in football in Colombes 1924, a town near the French capital, a medal that would be ratified four years later in Amsterdam 1928, in the Netherlands.
The hope of competing for the gold medal in Paris 2024 vanished when the Uruguayan team led by Marcelo Bielsa was eliminated last January.
The Uruguayan Olympic Committee (COU) delegation is made up of 25 athletes who will compete in nine disciplines, one of them as a team event.
The “Celeste” will have representatives in athletics, canoeing, cycling, judo, swimming, rowing, rugby sevens, taekwondo and sailing.
“It is one of the largest delegations in recent years and they are the best athletes our country has,” said Julio Cesar Maglione, president of the COU, in an interview with Xinhua, noting that “the medal is the dream and the goal, but it is very difficult to obtain it.”
“They have trained with great dedication, with great perseverance, they have done their best. The Government and the COU have done their best to provide them with opportunities for good training,” he said.
The former president of the International Swimming Federation and member of the International Olympic Committee also stressed that the next Olympic Games will be “a milestone.”
In this sense, he praised the message to the athletes of “fair play, a sense of friendship, brotherhood, above political, philosophical or religious questions.”
In athletics, Emiliano Lasa (long jump), María Pía Fernández (1,500 metres) and Santiago Catrofe (5,000 metres) will participate, while in canoeing Matías Otero (sprint) and in cycling Eric Fagúndez (road).
Mikael Aprahamian will compete in judo, Nicole Frank and Leo Nolles in swimming, while Bruno Cetraro will compete in rowing and María Sara Grippoli in taekwondo.
In sailing, the Uruguayan representatives are Fernando Diz, Hernan Umpierre and Dolores Moreira, while the rugby team is made up of 12 players.
The experienced Emiliano Lasa, who at 34 years old is going for his third Olympic Games, as well as the debutant Sara Grippoli, aged 19, will be the standard-bearers of the Uruguayan delegation.
In Uruguay’s Olympic history, football has won the only two gold medals of the South American country (1924 and 1928) among the 10 medals it has won.
The country’s last podium finish was in Sydney 2000 in Australia, where cyclist Milton Wynants won the silver medal in the points race.
“It’s been many years since the last medal, we’ll see what happens. They’re going to give their best. They’ve trained, respected the plans, worked well and with an exemplary attitude,” said Maglione.
Last week, Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou presented the national flag to athletes, telling them that “they are already winners” for their participation in Paris 2024.
“If they bring a medal, that would be even better, but for us they are already winners and we are proud that they are wearing the ‘Celeste’,” said Lacalle Pou.
2024-07-15 21:59:37
#SPECIAL #Uruguay #dream #Paris #Olympic #Games
