Brazil at the Olympics
Brazil is one of the strongest Latino countries in the Olympic Games. They made their Olympic debut in the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp and right off the bat won a gold, silver and bronze.
Brazil made Olympic history as one of the few countries to win Olympic gold in their debut. Shooters Guilherme Paraens took the gold for the 25 meter rapid fire pistol, Afrânio da Costa won the silver for the 50 meter pistol and the team of Afrânio da Costa, Dario Barbosa, Guilherme Paraense, Sebastião Wolf, and Fernando Soledade took the bronze in 50 m army pistol. Not too shabby for a first outing, huh?
Brazil has established itself as one of the perennial powerhouse in many events in the Olympics. They have had an almost perfect attendance to the Summer Games missing only the 1928 Summer Games in Amsterdam. For the ones they attended, there were only three instances (1924, 1932, 1936) where Brazilian athletes were not able to take home an Olympic medal. Brazil also hosted the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Not a lot of Latin American nations have attended the Winter Games but Brazil has had a perfect attendance since their first outing in 1992.
Trivia
- The Brazilian government couldn't afford to send its 69 athletes to the 1932 Los Angeles Games, so they herded them onto a ship with 50,000 sacks of Brazilian coffee, hoping to sell the beans to various ports of call on the way to California.
- During the 2004 marathon in Athens, Greece, Brazilian marathon runner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima was leading the race with 10km left when he was dragged to the ground by Irish priest. De Lima managed to continue and win the bronze medal.
- In 2016, the Brazilian capital Rio became the first South American city to host the Olympic Games.
- The Brazil men's football team won back-to-back gold medals in 2016 and 2020. This is not that unusual, they became the fifth team to win back-to-back gold medals in Olympics men's football.
- Amputee table tennis player Bruna Alexandre is the first Brazilian to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Related Pages
- Brazil at the Winter Olympics
- List of all countries that have participated at the Olympic Games.
- Rio 2016 Olympic Games
- About Sport in Brazil
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