Patricia Sampaio wins first Olympic medal for Portugal
The Portuguese judoka won the bronze medal in the -78 kg category.
PatrÃcia Sampaio won the bronze medal this Thursday in the 2024 Olympic Games taking place in Paris, France.
The 25-year-old Portuguese judoka from Tomar defeated Japanese Rika Takayama in the -78kg category.
This is the 29th Olympic medal for Portugal, the first at the Paris 2024 games.
Sampaio's bronze is the fourth for Portuguese judo at the Olympic Games, after the medals won by Nuno Delgado (Sydney2000, -81 kg), Telma Monteiro (Rio2016, -57 kg) and Jorge Fonseca (Tokyo2020, -100 kg).
Four Olympic diplomas
After Portugal's best ever performance at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and with 73 athletes representing Portugal at this year's Paris Olympic Games, the initial expectation was to surpass the number of medals ever won by the Portuguese delegation. So far, the Portuguese at the competition have won four Olympic diplomas, honours that are awarded to the top eight finishers in each event.
The first to receive a diploma was Nelson Oliveira, who finished seventh in the individual time trial in track cycling. He was joined by Ricardo Batista, who came 6th in the triathlon, and Vasco Vilaça, who equalled the best Portuguese participation in the event, finishing 5th. Inês Barros came eighth in Archery, beating her personal record with 121 broken plates.
Potential medal winners
With 75 athletes in 19 sports, Portugal is eyeing medals in several fields, such as athletics, swimming, cannoeing, and sailing. Pedro Pablo Pichardo, Olympic champion three years ago in Tokyo in the triple jump, is an obvious candidate for the gold medal.
But this time he won't be jumping alone and his best may not be good enough for gold - at the Europeans in Rome he did 18.04m, but that mark was only good enough for silver, behind the 18.18m of another ex-Cuban, Jordan DÃaz, who competes for Spain.
Canoeist Fernando Pimenta was one of Portugal's flag bearers at the opening ceremony and has two Olympic medals to his name. After silver in London 2012 and bronze in Tokyo 2020, Fernando Pimenta arrives in Paris as one of the strong contenders for victory.
Iúri Leitão is one of the strong names on the Portuguese cycling team. He won gold in the omnium at the 2023 World Cycling Championships. And he's seen as one of the strongest candidates to stand on the podium in Paris.
Swimmer Diogo Ribeiro was two-time world champion in Doha (50m and 100m butterfly), but he will hardly be able to repeat the feat in Paris, especially because the shorter distance is not on the Olympic program. But being in the final is more than possible, it's probable.