Portuguese American Journal

Summer Olympics: Portugal represented by 73 athletes in the Paris 2024 – France

Portugal is represented in the Summer Olympics 2024, by 73 athletes in 15 sports, 36 men and 37 women.

Officially branded as Paris2024, the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, scheduled for July 26 to August 11, will gather over 10,500 athletes from 206 countries, competing in 32 sports and 329 events.  The Paralympics will occur from 28 August to 8 September, featuring 4,400 athletes in 549 events.

Portugal first participated in the Olympic Games in 1912 and has since taken part in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games. Earlier that year, the Olympic Committee of Portugal (COP, Comité Olímpico de Portugal) was recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the Portuguese National Olympic Committee.

In 1952, athletes representing Portugal competed for the first time at the Olympic Winter Games and have only missed two editions since 1988.

Portugal has since won four gold medals at the multi-sport event, with victories by marathoner Carlos Lopes (1984), marathoner Rosa Mota (1988), long-distance runner Fernanda Ribeiro (1996), and triple/long jumper Nelson Évora (2008). As of the 2020 Summer Olympics, 39 Portuguese athletes have won 28 medals (5 gold, 9 silver, and 14 bronze). Portugal has not yet won any medals at the Winter Olympics.

Portugal’s flag-bearers at the Paris 2024 opening ceremony are canoeist Fernando Pimenta and long-distance track athlete Ana Cabecinha. Pimenta, making his fourth Olympic appearance, won bronze in the K1 1,000 meters in Tokyo (2020) and silver in the K2 1,000 meters in London (2012). Ana Cabecinha is making her fifth Olympic appearance.

On July 14 and 15, eleven days before the opening ceremony, former French champions and international athletes, including Portuguese gold medalist Rosa Mota, took turns carrying the Olympic Torch through Paris. American rapper Snoop Dogg is one of the last torchbearers, representing the United States in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis.

Rosa Mota

Rosa Mota, 66, a Portuguese former marathon runner, and one of her country’s foremost athletes, is the first sportswoman from Portugal to win Olympic gold. In major city marathons, Mota won Boston in 1987-88 and 1990; Chicago in 1983-84; London in 1991; Rotterdam in 1982; and Osaka in 1990.

In 2022, Rosa Mota broke the W65+ 10K world record, in Lisbon beating her previous age-group record by 37 seconds.

The United States, with nearly 600 athletes, is the largest delegation in the Paris2024 games, followed by France, the host country with 581 athletes, and Australia, Germany, and Japan with 460, 434, and 420 athletes, respectively.

The Paris2024 opening ceremony is scheduled to begin on July 26, in Paris, at 7:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. EST/US). Live coverage will be broadcast in English on NBC and in Portuguese on RTP2 and RTP Play.

For details visit Portugal at the 2024 Summer Olympics

PAJ/Staff

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