Nations that can win their first Olympic medal at the Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024 Road to Paris 2024

[SalamAkhi 278]

23 hours ago, Josh said:

 Agate De Sousa - Athletics - Women’s Long Jump

She's apparently willing to compete for Portugal. No international participation for São Tomé since 2019 but yet no indication of a transfer of allegiance on her WA page.

[phelps 6,872]

On 9/27/2023 at 6:42 AM, El Analyzer said:

I took some brave tablets and would say ...  in basketball 

it would be nice (and a great story), but I fear it's not gonna happen 

[heywoodu 13,560]

As far as I could tell, there is no specific thread for this but with the first gold medals, and I didn't think it'd be big enough to open one, so here we go

 

It's not a first medal, since Mauritius  has won one bronze medal in boxing once, but they surprisingly have a shot in women's cycling this year. It's not a huge chance, obviously, but in Tokyo we saw how someone who wasn't even considered on any list of dark horses ended up with the gold due to the Dutch women totally fucking up their tactics, so weird things can always happen

 

Kimberley Le Court Pienaar has been very impressive this year, often fighting at the front of the very biggest one-day races. Again, she is far from being the favourite, but I'd say her chances are significantly bigger than Anna Kiesenhofer's chances were ahead of Tokyo, and we know how well that ended. Definitely worth a mention, the chance exists!

[dodge 705]

While I don’t think she will win a medal (she hasn’t been top 5 in any race this year), she’s a very interesting character. Shes 28 and this is her first ever professional season. Before this year her only races were representing her country

[heywoodu 13,560]

8 hours ago, dodge said:

While I don’t think she will win a medal (she hasn’t been top 5 in any race this year), she’s a very interesting character. Shes 28 and this is her first ever professional season. Before this year her only races were representing her country

Like I said, she's definitely not a medal favourite, but "she hasn't been top-5 in any race this year" is rather underselling her qualities/performances  

 

Since January, every single race she has done from the Deakin University Elite Women's Road Race on (where she finished a more than excellent 9th) has been a big one-day World Tour race, none of those smaller .1 races in between. A very respectable 25th in a tough Strade Bianche, after being in the breakaway for a long time, 11th in the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, 9th in De Panne, 13th in Gent-Wevelgem and probably the best of all, 10th in Roubaix after very much being part of the main part of the race at the end. Her weakest race in the past two months was a 23rd in the Tour of Flanders, of all places. That being one's worst result says a lot (in a good sense).

 

In her entire pre-Olympic career, Anna Kiesenhofer had basically accomplished nothing remotely near to what Pienaar has shown in the past three months alone. Again: that does not make her the (or a) favourite, obviously, but in road racing weird things can happen and she is definitely a contender to keep an eye on, instead of one of the default 'exotic nation riders' who we often see in the first lead group of the world championships.

Edited Thursday at 06:26 PM by heywoodu