Uruguay was present at the Olympic Games Paris 2024

Several of the Uruguayan athletes achieved success at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Without medals, at the end of the competition they all said that they left the French capital with the desire to redouble their efforts to participate in Los Angeles 2028.

For those who followed the competition closely, it was clear that, in the absence of medals, the Uruguayan athletes had plenty of desire to move forward and progress.

With the end of Paris 2024, the seeds of future achievements were sown in several disciplines. Uruguay has several Olympians ready to wear “la celeste” (as the Uruguayan national soccer team jersey is known) whenever possible.

The surprise of canoeing

During the second week of the Paris Games, the name of Matías Otero was one of the most sought after in Uruguay and the reason was one of the most pleasant surprises for the delegation. The 26-year-old Uruguayan made his debut in canoeing, made it to the repechage and there, after being second, he got into the semifinals of the K1 1000 category. His last performance was in the B final, where he finished 14th out of 29 and achieved a historic first performance in his first Olympic competition.

For Uruguay XXI, Otero's achievement means a particular joy, since the coach and president of the Uruguayan Canoeing Federation is our colleague Sebastián Gómez, TI's coordinator at the agency.

From the point of view of our dear “Seba”, despite not having won medals in Paris, the foundations were laid for Uruguayan canoeing to continue participating in important events.

“Now we have to consider a strategy and we have to take advantage of this moment, both the sports that were in Paris 2024 and those that were not, because I think this serves to show others that it is possible, that with hard work things can be achieved. We all know that it is difficult for the federations to work due to different factors, but that grit that we Uruguayans have, that drive to achieve things, leads us to achievements that obviously must be accompanied by hard work and planning”, he told the Ovación supplement of the Uruguayan newspaper El País.

More achievements

Among the Uruguayans who achieved outstanding positions was Emiliano Lasa, the 34-year-old athlete who participated in his third Olympic Games in Paris, placed 13th among 32 competitors and came within three centimeters of advancing to the Olympic long jump final. With 7.87 meters jumped, Lasa proved that he is still a high-performance athlete capable of standing out.

In Athletics, Santiago Catrofe also participated in the event, finishing 27th out of 40 in the 5,000 meters, and María Pía Fernández was 42nd out of 44 in the 1,500 meters.

There are those who speak of the rebirth of Uruguayan cycling, since the presence in Paris of Eric Fagúndez, who carried the flag of cycling and fulfilled, although he did not win any medals. The 25-year-old cyclist completed the more than demanding road race and was 55th among 90 competitors.

Another discipline in which Uruguayans came close to the Olympic Diploma was sailing. Hernán Umpierre and Fernando Diz, 23 and 24 years old respectively, had a great start to the competition in the 49th class of sailing in their first appearance at the Olympic Games and finished among the top nine in the regular stage. They managed to advance to the medal race and placed 10th overall in the 20-boat field.

For Dolores Moreira, from Santa Cruz, it was the third Olympic Games in which she competed in the ILCA6 sailing class and she finished in 22nd place among 43 participants.

Bruno Cetraro also excelled in rowing, who with a meritorious participation finished in 12th place among 33 competitors.

In taekwondo, María Sara Grippoli was the sky-blue representative who also made history in Paris 2024, as it was the first time this discipline competed in the Olympic Games. The 19-year-old athlete finished 11th among 17 competitors in the -49 kilos category, after losing in her debut against Adriana Cerezo from Spain, who arrived after winning the silver medal in Tokyo 2020 and as the reigning European champion.

In judo, Uruguay's Mikael Aprahamian participated and in his debut he lost to Japan's Takanori Nagase, who had just won the gold medal in Tokyo 2020 and repeated his success in Paris 2024.

Uruguay was also present once again in swimming at the Olympic Games. Leo Nolles, 21, and Nicole Frank, 20, represented Uruguay, which currently has no swimmers with A or B Marks. Nolles was 47th out of 79 participants in the 100m freestyle in his first Olympic experience, while Nicole Frank finished 30th out of 34 in the 200m medley.

Finally, the Uruguayan Rugby Team, Los Teros, who made history by qualifying for the Olympic Games for the first time, left with a win against Japan, after losing their other four matches, and finished in 11th place in the rankings. This participation marked a historic milestone for this sport in Uruguay and laid the foundations for a promising future.

Photos courtesy of the National Sports Secretariat