On Monday, the Olympic Committee of Spain announced the names of the 321 athletes representing Spain in Tokyo this year. Experts predict where the best opportunities for medals lie for Spain.
A total of 321 Spanish athletes will participate in the postponed edition of the Olympic Games, of which 184 are men and 137 are women. The complete list of names of all Spanish athletes has been published on this website.
Is Spain taking part in all sports?
In total, these athletes will represent Spain in 29 of the 33 sports selected for these Summer Games. Only for rugby, baseball, wrestling and surfing is there no Spanish representation. Spain is very well represented in athletics with 55 participants, followed by swimming with 45 athletes.
Spanish cycling team also announces names
On Monday, the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation also announced the team members’ names for the race and time trials in the Japanese capital. The team will be led by the leader Alejandro Valverde, who is currently still busy with the Tour de France. The Movistar rider is surrounded by brothers Gorka and Ion Izagirre, Jesús Herrada and Omar Fraile. Ion Izagirre also does the time trial.
At 41, Valverde is one of the older athletes and is taking part in the Games for the fifth time. He was previously part of the Spanish team in Athens (2004), Beijing (2008), London (2012) and Rio de Janeiro (2016).
What are the medal predictions?
AS.com wrote on Thursday that Alejandro Blanco Bravo, president of the Olympic Committee of Spain, said he expects Spain to take home more medals this year than the 17 at the 2016 Games in Rio.
Where do the opportunities lie for Spain?
Some of the contenders are tennis player Rafael Nadal and badminton player Carolina Marín. AS.com wrote that boxing, athletics, basketball, handball, cycling, football, gymnastics, golf, weightlifting, dressage, hockey, judo, karate, swimming, triathlon and water polo also offer significant opportunities for the Spanish participants. The 2020 Olympics will take place in Tokyo from July 23 to August 8.
