Argentina equal their largest Olympic delegation
Rio de Janeiro, July 26 (IANS) With the qualification of gymnast Nicolas Cordoba, Argentina will go to the Rio Olympics with 213 athletes, the same number as for London 1948, the largest delegation in their history.
Cordoba, a specialist in the horizontal bar, will go to the Olympics after Portugal’s Gustavo Simoes dropped out, having broken his left foot in training, reports Xinhua.
Argentina are celebrating a stellar qualification process, having exponentially increased their delegation from just 137 in London 2012.
Back then, the country won just four medals, a gold in taekwondo, a silver in hockey, and two bronze in tennis and sailing.
Some of those who will compete at the 2016 Olympics already know how to climb the podium, especially Argentina’s female hockey team, who have taken two silver medals and two bronze since Sydney 2000.
Surviving members of Argentina’s golden generation of basketball, Emanuel Ginobili, Luis Scola, Andres Nocioni, Carlos Delfino will seek to make their last stand count, after seeing gold in Athens 2004 and bronze in Beijing 2008.
Juan Martin del Potro will seek to build on his bronze for tennis in London and Paula Pareto will want to reclaim the bronze medal she took in Beijing for judo.
London 1948 is also Argentina’s most successful Olympiad to date, having won seven medals with three gold, three silver and one bronze, finishing 14th out of 59 countries.
This year in Rio, Argentina will have the chance to prove whether the increased number of athletes will translate once again on the medal tally.