For 32 years, the Spanish Olympic delegation has pursued the same objective: to surpass the 22 medals achieved at the Barcelona Olympic Games. That summer of 1992, with a country dedicated to the Olympic event, no less than thirteen golds were achieved, accompanied by seven silvers and two bronzes, with unforgettable moments such as Kiko Narváez’s goal in the final against Poland or Fermín Cacho from Soriano winning. in the 1,500s. From those Games until the last ones, those in Tokyo in 2021, the Spanish harvest only came close to the record in Athens 2004 or London 2012, with two dozen metals in both, although with only three and four golds, respectively.
This year, with a delegation that already has 240 places waiting for pre-Olympics such as men’s basketball or closing rankings in sports such as tennis or golf, ambition and expectations are maximum after an exceptional Olympic cycle in numerous sports , in which a place has been achieved, for example, in nine of the ten sailing disciplines (the sport with the most medals in the national Olympics) and with a ‘double’ of men’s and women’s teams classified in water polo, football, hockey or handball. Among those places already guaranteed presence in Paris, between July 26 and August 11, the Andalusian delegation accumulates around thirty, within which some names stand out who attend the Olympic event with pressure and enthusiasm. to know that they are candidates for an Olympic medal. They are Olga, Fátima, Carolina, María and Laura. Thus they arrive at a summer that could be historic for them and for Andalusian sport.
Carolina Marín, in full competition. / Efe
Carolina Marín – Badminton
The Huelva native, Olympic champion in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, is a serious contender for gold in Paris. After missing the Tokyo Games due to a serious knee injury, Carolina arrives at this summer’s event in unbeatable shape after having won three consecutive tournaments: the All England, the Swiss Open and the European Championship, the latter for the eighth time in his career. Furthermore, this week she has received a new distinction, which is none other than the awarding of the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports, a recognition that puts her on a par with great athletes in our country such as Miguel Indurain, Fernando Alonso, the brothers Gasol and Rafa Nadal, and internationals such as Steffi Graf, Michael Schumacher, Lindsey Vonn and Eliud Kipchoge. The jury has highlighted “her extraordinary achievements in a sport in which she has become an international reference”, in addition to pointing out the Huelva native (who could be the standard bearer of the Spanish delegation at the opening ceremony of the Paris Games) as the first and only non-Asian Olympic champion athlete in this discipline, “in addition to being the best player in the history of badminton in Spain and one of the best in the world, she is an example of improvement, a source of inspiration and transmitter of values, within and off the track.” Third in the world ranking currently, and one of the oldest players on the circuit (she will compete in the Games at the age of 31), she herself has declared that she is traveling to France with the top spot on the podium as her goal. To do this, they will have to overcome a group stage that begins on July 27, and then play the round of 16, quarterfinal and semifinal rounds that take them to the grand final on August 5 at eleven in the morning, at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena. Her main obstacle on the way will be the Chinese Chen Yu Fei, current number 2 in the world ranking and Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020.
Fátima Gálvez takes a shot. / CORDOBA
Fátima Gálvez – Tiro
In the last Tokyo Olympic Games, the Spanish delegation only won three gold medals: Sandra Sánchez in karate, the surprising Alberto Ginés in the climbing event and Alberto Fernández and Fátima Gálvez from Córdoba in the mixed pit. In fact, hers was the first gold medal that Spain won in the event that summer of 2021 that now, three years later, the 37-year-old shooter born in Baena wants to repeat in what will be her fourth Olympic Games. With her place secured since the 2022 World Cup in Croatia, the Cordoban woman arrives in Paris at the top of the Olympic ranking with great results in recent months, namely: silver in the Doha World Cup in November 2023 and also silver in the World Cup held in Cairo last January, an event in which his dance partner at the Games, Alberto Fernández from Madrid, won gold, confirming both as contenders for repeat medals this summer. They will compete at the Chateauroux Shooting Center between July 27 and August 5.
María de Valdés, after winning a medal. / CORDOBA
María de Valdés – Open waters
At the beginning of February, ten tenths of a second separated María de Valdés from the gold medal in the ten kilometer open water event at the Doha World Championships. Her marvelous performance earned her the runner-up in the World and qualification for the Olympic Games in which he aspires to everything in the waters of the Seine River on the morning of Thursday, August 8. It so happens that the 25-year-old from Fuengirola will take over in the Olympic event from another Malaga native, Paula Ruiz, who was the Spanish representative at the Tokyo Games in the summer of 2021 after a ‘fratricidal’ duel in the qualifiers. Now María de Valdés, from the Liceo Swimming Club of La Coruña, goes to the Games as a candidate for a podium of which she already knows the second step at the European and world level, always behind the all-powerful Dutch swimmer Sharon van Rouwendaal, current runner-up. Olympian and world champion and, on paper, the top favorite to win gold in Paris, in what would be her fourth Olympic Games.
And precisely last weekend, in Seville, the Malaga woman and the Dutch woman measured forces in a Spanish championship open to international swimmers, held in the waters of the Guadalquivir River and which ended with the victory of the Australian Moesha Johnson (another candidate to gold in the waters of the Seine River), ahead of Ángela Martínez, Spanish champion and also an Olympian, Paula Otero and, in fourth position, María de Valdés (1:58:41.4), who crossed the finish line six seconds before they go Rouwendaal, who finished fifth.
María Pérez, in full action. / CORDOBA
María Pérez – March
Athletics fans will not forget the past World Athletics Championships held last summer in the capital of Hungary, Budapest. Spain attended with a delegation of close to 60 athletes, the largest in its history at a world championship, and ended the event with five medals and third position in the final classification. Of those five medals, four were gold and came from the walking tests, in the distances of 20 and 35 kilometers, where Álvaro Martín and María Pérez from Granada They signed a performance that will go down in history, achieving first position in both events, making them without a doubt and if injuries persist in the coming months, the top favorites to win the Olympic gold in Paris, on August 1 at the Parisian trocadero.
The Granada native from Orce María Pérez, who will compete at the age of 28 in her second Games (she finished fourth in Tokyo), finished the second event of the last world championships practically lame and this past winter she underwent surgery to operate on her sacrum, but always with the Olympic Games. Paris on the horizon. «I have recovered without painkillers», he stated in March in an interview given to Relevo and in the weeks prior to his return to the competition, which took place at the World Walking Championships held in the Turkish town of Antalya and in which there was double news: the classification of two Spanish couples for the test that will premiere in Paris 2024, the mixed walking relay (we will talk about it later) and María’s return to the competition, concluding the test in tenth position forming a pair with Miguel Ángel López after a sanction three minutes to the Granada for a red card for the way he walked. Precisely a few days after the championship, a preparation video from the International Athletics Federation for the judges came to light, showing about five seconds of the Granada’s march that would be susceptible to sanction, accompanied by the text “walker who infringes.” the definition of athletic walking and deserves a red card”, which could affect the referees who are in charge of monitoring the Olympic event next August.
Laura García Caro – March
The two couples that achieved the Olympic place for Spain in the mixed walking relay event in Turkey last month were made up of Alberto Amezcua and Cristina Montesinos, who finished seventh, and the double world champion Álvaro Martín and Laura García from Huelva. Caro, who won the bronze medal and repeated it after competing and winning, at the beginning of March in Valencia, the first international test of a discipline that will debut in Paris and that represents a challenge due to its peculiarity: the distance of the marathon (42,195 meters), covered in four posts.
With less than three months until the Games, and with the composition of the two couples that will compete representing our country still pending to be confirmed, the presence of Laura García-Caro is magnificent news after a blank 2023 due to an ‘invisible enemy’: persistent covid. The Huelva native from Lepe, who was already an Olympian in Tokyo in the summer of 2021, aspires to her second Olympic appointment either in the mixed relay or the individual walking test after last January she managed to improve the Olympic minimum in the Spanish championships, confirming his recovery in time for this very important 2024.
Olga Carmona, in a meeting with Real Madrid. / AFP7
Olga Carmona – Football
If there is a women’s team that has been on everyone’s lips in our country in recent years, it is the Spanish soccer team. Both because of the extra-sporting noise that caused an upheaval in the Spanish Federation last summer, and because of its sporting merits that have turned the team that was then, in the summer of 2023, coached by Jorge Vilda and that is now managed by his second team, Montse Tomé, into champions of the World, with a place already secured for the Paris Olympic Games after beating the Netherlands in the semifinals of a Nations League played at the La Cartuja stadium in Seville and which they would also end up taking after beating France in the final by two goals to zero. In addition, the team is number 1 in the FIFA world ranking and has just received the Laureus Award for team of the year in 2023. In this team, which logically goes to Paris as the top favorite for gold in what will be its first participating in an Olympic event, there will be Real Madrid’s Sevillian Olga Carmona. Left back for the white team and the national team, although he can play in more advanced positions, She was the star of the World Cup final in Australia by scoring the winning goal against England. It so happened that Olga dedicated the goal to a friend of hers, whose mother had recently died, and a few hours after the conclusion of the match, the 23-year-old young woman from Seville found out about the death of her father.
If nothing strange happens, Olga Carmona will be on Montse Tomé’s list for Paris 2024, which has already set the team’s first rivals on its way to the grand final on Saturday, August 10, at the Parc des Princes: Spain will debut against Japan on Thursday, July 25; Then they will face Nigeria on the 28th and close the group stage against the Brazilian national team on the 31st.
2024-05-12 04:47:05
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