Paris 2024 Olympics | Colombia, normal, in its silver: only one medal less than what it did in Tokyo 2020 (first assessment)

The three silver medals and one bronze medal won by the Colombian delegation in the Paris 2024 Games that end today confirm a period of stagnation in Colombian Olympic sport and that has been curiously occurring since the creation of the Ministry of Sport in Colombia in 2019.

The general level was maintained with respect to the past Olympicsthe generational change of sportsmen is underway. The defeats of the delegation’s stars proved decisive. However, the future, with the cut of two thirds of the budget announced for next year, is worrying.

Paris is the performance with the worst sporting results since the London 2012 Olympic Games in which Colombia won 9 medals, one gold, and was far from the country’s best historical participation in the top competitions, achieved in Rio de Janeiro 2016 with three gold medals, two silver and three bronze.

Colombia, in Paris 2024, showed that it is stuck at the Olympics?

In the past Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, played in 2021 due to the covid 19 pandemic that paralyzed the world, Colombia He won five medals, just one silver more than the medals he won in Paris.

What is the reason for the stagnation? Throughout the past decade, Colombia became an example in the area of ​​Olympic cycle sports development so much so that neighboring countries not only praised and admired: they asked for advice and made visits to study and see what elements they could take in their nations to imitate the surprising Colombia that became the third sports power in South America and the fifth of Latin America thanks to its growing investment in its talent discovery and supported athlete programs, supported in many and definitive cases by the arrival of foreign coaches who are experts in key disciplines.

From a strictly sporting point of view, the first major explanation is the end of a golden generation of Olympic athletes led by the BMX rider Mariana Pajon, double gold medalist in London and Rio de Janeiro, then silver in Tokyo and now in white; and for the triple jumper Catherine Ibargüen, gold in Rio de Janeiro.

Olympic defeats of stars are decisive

In Paris 2024 It was confirmed that, paradoxically, sporting results decreased with the creation of the Ministry of Sport in 2019, transformed into a State portfolio of the old Colombian Sports Institute, Coldeportes, remodeled into an Administrative Department.

With a delegation of 88 athletes, 18 of them from the women’s soccer team, Colombia won three silver medals and one gold medal, as well as 13 Olympic diplomas, which are awards given to those in eighth place in all disciplines that are part of the Olympic program.

The real Colombian methodological expectation in these games was to obtain at least five medals, which were considered fixed, with the hope of increasing the spoils with surprise participations in sports in which one could aspire to compete.

Medal by medal, this is the most discreet result since London 2012, and the reason is strictly sporting: four of the big favourites for the medal did not achieve their objective: the javelin thrower, the track cyclists Kevin Quintero and Marta Bayona and the boxer Jenny Arias eliminated before competing for medals.

Their defeats were decisive in the competition for Colombia’s overall medal table. It is sport and they had to lose, and with them, obviously, the national delegation lost.

The only one called to be on the podium who fulfilled his promise was the weightlifter Yeison Lopez, who claimed the silver medal. The gymnast’s surprise silver medals were outstanding and meritorious Angel Barajas on the high bar and weightlifter Mari Leivis Sánchez, and the bronze went to wrestler Tatiana Rentería.

The cycles, the level is there

As it happened in the Olympicsthe general level has been maintained in the Pan American and Central American Games.

At the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, 27 golds, 24 silvers and 31 bronzes were won. At the Santiago 2023 Games, there were 23 gold medals, 31 silver and 31 bronze medals and seven Olympic quotas.

The change in the generation of athletes, in theory, already began at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador 2023, where Colombia achieved the overall runner-up title for the first time, behind Mexico and surpassing Cuba for the first time.

And the Ministry of Sport?

He Ministry of Sport has a major fault in this Olympic cycle. The delay in the continuous preparation of athletes for the Olympic cycle due to the delay in the delivery of resources to the federations.

The idea of ​​the former minister Maria Isabel Urrutia, first in the government sector President Gustavo Petrowas to directly transfer resources to the different federations without the intermediation of the Colombian Olympic Committee.

Athletes and federation leaders have repeatedly denounced the delays that have hindered their preparations.

The resources were delayed, but they finally arrived, as admitted by the gymnast Ángel Barajas. He repeated that he had been in long training camps and participated in tournaments around the world. And he acknowledged the state support.

Lisandro Rengifo

Special correspondent from EL TIEMPO in Paris

@lisandroabel