In Tokyo 2020, Brazil wants to beat its own Olympic records

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil comes to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with an ambitious challenge: to beat the medal record of the last edition, when it had more athletes in contention and competing at home, with all the support and energy of Rio 2016 on its side.

To achieve this bold goal, the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) is relying on a team of rookies who arrive with favorite status in debutant sports – such as skateboarding and surfing – as well as seasoned veterans who are working to return to the podium, this time in the pandemic Olympics, the most adverse in recent history.

“I’m working with the perspective of surpassing Rio-2016, whether it’s in the number of medals, the number of gold medals, or the number of modalities that competed for medals,” Paulo Wanderley, COB president, told the newspaper El Pais.

A total of 301 Brazilian athletes will compete in 35 sports in Tokyo – there were 465 athletes in 2016, the largest Olympic delegation in the country’s history.

Even though leaner, the Brazilian delegation hopes to surpass the 19 medals won in the last edition when Brazil also equaled its record of Olympic gold medals (seven) and ended the campaign with an honorable 13th place overall.

Even without fans and with all the adversity that last year imposed on the athletes, Paulo Wanderley argues that “2019 [which would be the last of the Olympic cycle if not for the coronavirus] was better than 2015, the eve of 2016″ to justify the goal of improving Brazilian performance at the Olympics.

In this edition, most of the Brazilian team is new to the Olympics. Of the 301 Brazilian athletes in Japan, 31 are medalists, 18 are Olympic champions, and 174 are debutants. It is also the delegation with the most women in the country’s history.

Of these, 271 were immunized with the first dose, and 226 (75%) were fully immunized with vaccines donated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), giving twice as many doses to the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

In Tokyo, 140 Brazilian female athletes are competing, although the percentage of women was compared to men was higher in Athens 2004 (49%, compared to 46% in Tokyo).

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