Updated: 02 Aug 2024 | 10:23
01 ago 2024 | 09:55
The motto of the Olympic Games (the event symbolised by the coloured rings) says it all: “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (“Faster, Higher, Stronger”). The race to collect the maximum number of gold medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games began on Saturday, when the first gold was awarded for the mixed 10m air rifle team event in shooting. Since then, the sporting event has taken place more or less normally, if we take into account that Paris suffered a one-hour power outage and a cancellation on Tuesday: the triathlon event was moved to Wednesday due to the poor quality of the water in the Seine River. The memes tell themselves.
Despite the unexpected, the different skills (some of them from minor sports) have been celebrated. Some Spanish names have managed to appear in the classifications for the gold. The objective of the Spanish delegation is to surpass the 22 medals of Barcelona’92, to mark a new milestone in its passage through the Olympic Games, which ended with low figures:
- Athens (1996): 17
- Sydney (2000): 11
- Athens (2004): 20
- Beijing (2008): 19
- London (2012): 20
- Rio de Janeiro (2016): 17
- Tokio (2020): 17
Spain has already won four medals. The first, a bronze medal, was thanks to Fran Garrigós. A bronze in Judo that tasted like gold to him, as he himself confessed at the end of the competition.
The Madrid native, world champion in Doha in 2023 in the -60 kilos category, beat Georgian Giorgui Sardalashvili, second in the world, and won bronze, the first Olympic judo medal for Spain in 24 years.
Álvaro Martín joined the second race early on Thursday. A few hours later, the walker María Pérez won the silver medal in the 20-kilometre walk.
In the individual kayak final, Pau Echaniz won another bronze in the K1 whitewater after entering the final as the last classified,
These medals are already included in our list, which leaves the following ranking in the medal table for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games:
Spain’s four medals
- Judo: Fran Garrigós bronze medal
- 20 kilometer walk: bronze medal for Alvaro Martin
- 20 kilometer walk: bronze medal for Maria Perez
- K1 K1 whitewater canoeing: bronze medal for Pau Echaniz
Spanish athletes with the most Olympic medals
The two young men thus begin their journey to becoming one of the Spanish athletes with the most Olympic medals. They must have shared a gym with one of them, since the second name with the most medals is participating in the 2025 Olympics.
This is the Spanish canoeist Saúl Craviotto. For the fifth consecutive time he is attending the world sporting event, accumulating two golds, two silvers and a bronze in his record. This could be his last time, but he assures that he does not feel any kind of pressure to get the sixth medal and thus surpass the first of the first Spaniards, David Cal.
The third on the list, Mireia Belmonte, will not be doing her thing (winning) at this year’s games, as she did not achieve the minimum score in the final of the 400-meter freestyle at the Spanish Championships in June. The four-time Olympic medalist could not avoid the consequences of a cycle complicated by injuries. The third person who has given Spain the most Olympic joy is the cyclist Joan Llaneras. He already has four medals to his name: two golds (Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008) and two silvers (Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008).
The Spanish canoeist Maialen Chourraut did participate, but was left out of the race for another medal. The 41-year-old athlete had qualified for her fourth consecutive Olympic final in her fifth participation after making it past the semi-finals, but in the fight for the medals she was unable to spring a surprise this time, as happened three years ago when no one seemed to count on her and her experience and know-how gave her a valuable silver medal, the third of her career after the bronze in London 2012 and the gold in Rio de Janeiro 2016.
However, spirits should not be dampened. The truth is that Spain still has time to add more medals, as they will continue to be awarded until August 11, the day on which the women’s basketball tournament will be decided. It will be around 5:00 p.m.
