The Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP) already hoped to have more qualifications for the next Olympic Games, but, one year after the start of Paris 2024, the head of the Portuguese mission is confident that the objectives set will be met.
“I won’t hide it, we expected at least one team. […] We knew that we could qualify the U21 soccer team for the Games. And we hoped, as we hoped in Tokyo, that this situation could happen again. […] In the history of youth soccer teams, there are not so many records in the final stages of the European championships in which we did not reach the semifinals”, assumed Marco Alves, in an interview with Lusa.
The head of Portugal’s mission to Paris 2024 was referring to the elimination of the team in the quarterfinals of the Under-21 Euro Cup, on July 2, with a defeat against England, which definitively excluded the Portuguese from the next Olympic Games.
“History accompanied us in this expectation and, indeed, it was not possible. […]. But in most ways, the process is ongoing. There is a lot to happen yet. One year to the Games. We have the expectation, with handball still competing for this classification, to be able to reach or exceed the number of athletes that we bring to Tokyo”, he said.
In the Japanese capital, at the Games that were held only in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Portugal was represented by 92 athletes, as was the case five years earlier, in Rio 2016, and Marco Alves believes that the expectation of reaching that figure remains intact.
“Traditionally, if we go back to 2008 and 2012, without team sports, we have missions around 77, 76 athletes. When we started to integrate, both in Rio, with soccer, and in Tokyo, with handball, […] we spent nine dozen. And I think that this is a number, with handball of course, that it is possible to guarantee for the Paris edition”, he maintained.
In the coming months there will be a set of competitions that “will also be able to give classification quotas” for the Games that take place between July 26 and August 11, 2024, he recalled, noting that the Portuguese mission “also relies heavily on modalities that are determined by ranking”, so there are “athletes who have a classification note”, such as Auriol Dongmo, in shot put, or Isaac Nader, in the 1,500 meters, “who only They will see their ranking confirmed when the rank period ends.”
“For this reason, we are going to aim for a considerable increase in the delegation for next year, precisely through the qualification systems of the modalities,” he added.
Regarding the preparation for Paris 2024, Marco Alves considered that ‘anxiety’ is “the right word” to define the state of mind of the Portuguese Olympians.
“I think that regardless of the experience they already have, anxiety is part of the process. And I think it is even a healthy condition ”, she reinforced, estimating that there are reasons for the Portuguese mission to be optimistic, even considering the results of the Krakow 2023 European Games.
However, Alves pointed out that Portugal’s best performance in that event does not necessarily reflect Olympic expectations, as “there are a number of sports that, purely and simply, are not part of the sports program of the Olympic Games.”
“Although it is very good in the context of the European Games, you cannot make such a direct analogy with what could happen in Paris next year. Naturally, good results have an influence, ”he considered.
The COP set as objectives for Paris 2024 a greater number of sports represented, the same number of medals won in Tokyo 2020 -four-, and a greater gender balance, something that the head of mission continues to believe is possible.
“The goals were set at a stage that was a bit difficult to set. We understand that they have to be defined, because we are contracting public resources to do so and there must be a goal of what can be achieved with that economic resource, and this is done at a time when the classification processes have not yet been publicized, have not yet been executed, when some athletes are still deciding whether or not to continue with their international career.
Source: TSF
