How it was disastrous? We qualify between 140 athletes, which at least to me were my expectations in May 2022 before the qualification period started. We lost some usual quotas but we won others that we didnt had before.
Better and growing athletes in Athletics and Swimming, first time since a long time in Archery, Canoeing meh but between expectations, Cycling, Equestrian and Fencing normal (probably one or two more could have qualified). Good perfomances in Golf, no Gymnastics not the best but expected (we were very close with 2 athletes anyways). Judo meh as usual, Pentathlon and Rowing normal, Shooting and Sailing are the same as Tokyo, probably with better hopes with this delegation. Direct quota in Table Tennis was a good news, same as Taekwondo and Triathlon. Tennis with such a great delegation with big hopes in each of every one except for the girls.
In terms of the "new" sports, qualifying 2 in Skate is very big, knowing that they were in the Top 10 for the start of the cycle and they didnt fall. Also, a quota in BMX Freestyle is good too, with an athlete that is going t be fighting in the top 8 probably. Aside from that, the girls in Skate Street did a good cycle, they were in quota places until they eventually fall, but at least they fought. In Climbing, a girl competed in the OQS which is a good step for our country federation, while in Santiago the speed guy did a very good job.
In terms of dissapointment, probably Boxing is the big one, but i dont see it that serious really, none of our athletes were favorites to qualify anyways. No qualifiers in Surfing and Wrestling is also sad, knowing we had a former world champions in our squad. Apart from that, there were no other failures. Also, beach volleyball is not out yet.
The team sports is probably better than expected. Both genders of Hockey qualified easily and are having a good Pro League run so i think they are in a good shape. Two medal favorites in Mens Football and Rugby 7 (and two strong ones) was something that we didnt had in Tokyo. In the case of Womens, a 0-1 loss against home team Colombia leaved the Football without a quota, which i dont think its a bad result, same as Rugby, an Argentina team that was the third or fourth of Sudamerica two years ago and now is the second by difference, with good results in the Challenger series. Not as close favorites but normal cycle for the Handball and Volleyball, having a good qualification cycle, specially the Handball with that excellent win against Brasil. For the girls in this two sports, the Handball team ended up reaching the final of the Continental quota (as expected) and having more competitives matches in the Pre-Olympic comparing to the Tokyo cycle. The Volleyball girls were impossible to qualify because of the new process but they won the PanAmerican Cup last year and defeated Colombia in the world cup, surpassing them in the rankings and playing the Challenger Cup in two weeks, so, a improvement compared to last cycle taking in consideration the new process and the impossibility of qualifying.
Basketball is probably the biggest dissapointment of the cycle, not reaching at least the Pre-Olympic or the World Cup is too much, but in the other hand we dont have a competitive team and we knew that after Tokyo so its not like a shocking thing. Also, we qualified this month our two young squads for each gender World Cup next year so its not that bad.
To resume, saying this was a disastrous cycle its literally A JOKE. I dont know if you were expecting 189 like in Tokyo or 213 like Rio but this cycle was exactly as the expectations were before the start, not more and not less.