QCOSTARICA – The Costa Rican judoka Ian Ignacio Sancho Chinchilla became this Tuesday the ninth Costa Rican to get the ticket to the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games through the world or continental classification system.
This number of classifieds is the highest for Costa Rica since such a classification system exists, which was imposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since Atlanta 1996.
In reference to this record, the president of the National Olympic Committee, Henry Nuñez Nájera said, “Prior to Atlanta 1996, qualifying for the Olympics was very different. At that time, the host country defined the brands and the countries brought the athletes who had the possibilities to finance.”
Past rules allowed delegations to be very large, a factor that the IOC decided to limit through the world and continental ranking system. In other words, they chose to filter the best athletes in the world through pre-Olympic tournaments and positions in the global rankings.
The only sports that maintained the modality of “guaranteed places” were athletics and swimming.
Since the current classification system exists, Costa Rica had only managed to classify 3 to 5 athletes. This year we managed to get 9 athletes to get the ticket, which makes us very happy ”
Since Atlanta 1996, Costa Rica has varied its number of qualifiers to the Olympic Games:
- Atlanta 1996: Costa Rica took 11 athletes to the Olympics, but one was invited and another (Gilda Montenegro kayaking) joined the delegation due to the abandonment of other countries. At that time, the athletics and swimming brands (5 Costa Rican athletes were at that time) were still defined by the host country. That is, they were governed by the old classification system.
- Sydney 2000: Costa Rica led 7 athletes to the Olympics.
- Athens 2004: Costa Rica brought 20 athletes to the Olympics, but 14 were on the men’s soccer team.
- Beijing 2008: Costa Rica brought 8 athletes to the Olympics, but 3 were invited.
- London 2012: Costa Rica brought 11 athletes to the Olympics, but 3 were by invitation.
- Rio de Janeiro 2016: Costa Rica brought 11 athletes to the Olympics, but 2 were by invitation and one (Milagro Mena in cycling) qualified for a last-minute sanction in the Russian delegation.
In regards to Tokyo 2021, Costa Rica will have 9 qualified athletes and 2 guests, for now.
- Brisa Hennessy Kobara – Surf
- Leilani McGonagle Cada – Surf
- Kenneth Tencio Esquivel – BMX Freestyle
- Andrea Vargas Mena – Athletics
- Noelia Vargas Mena – Athletics
- María José Vargas Barrientos – Cycling
- Andrey Amador Bikkazakova – Cycling
- Luciana Alvarado Reid – Gymnastics
- Ignacio Sancho Chinchilla – Judo
- (Guest) Arnoldo Herrera Portuguez – Swimming
- (Guest) Beatriz Padrón Salazar – Swimming
The Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games will begin on July 23 and end on August 8 of this year.
Source: Delfino.cr
