There are 91 days left before the start of the Paris-2024 Summer Olympic Games, which will be held on July 26.

Idman.biz is starting a series of articles dedicated to the most prestigious multi-sport competition of the quadrennial, which will start on Friday after 13 weeks.

Until Paris-2024, we will remember the summer Olympics in which Azerbaijani athletes participated in the years of independence. It is true that our representatives participated in these competitions for many years as part of the USSR and CIS teams in 1992. But the debut as an independent country, as our own nation, took place 28 years ago.

Atlanta instead of Athens

The 26th Summer Olympic Games organized in 1996 coincided with the 100th anniversary of the competition. Greece, the home of the Olympics, was expected to host the multi-sport event. In the first three rounds of the selections of the organizing city, Athens was ahead of everyone else, but in the next two rounds, the happy Atlanta Olympians gathered in the state of Georgia, USA. Independent Azerbaijan made its debut among the 197 countries participating in the Olympics held from July 19 to August 4, 1996.

Our Top 23

The Azerbaijani national team participated in the first attempt at the Summer Olympic Games with 23 athletes. 20 of them were men and 3 were women. Our team crossed the ocean to compete in 9 sports.

Core of the national team

Since the first Olympics, Azerbaijan national team stood out in wrestling. It is about the wrestlers gaining a majority in the team and becoming the core of the team. Freestyle wrestlers also began to dominate the carpet from the very first Olympics. 6 out of 8 members of our national wrestling team tested their strength in freestyle and 2 in Greco-Roman style. In Atlanta, 4 athletes performed in athletics, 2 athletes in boxing, judo, weightlifting and shooting (one in shot put, the other in stand-up). In the first attempt, our country was represented by one person in diving, fencing and swimming.

Azerbaijan’s team longing

The foundation of such an unpleasant trend as the tradition of wrestlers becoming the core of the team was laid in our very first Olympics. Azerbaijani athletes, who performed only in individual sports in Atlanta, ended their longing for team competitions in Paris-2024 only in the 8th attempt. However, even in the last years of the USSR, our country, which had a sufficiently strong club in volleyball, handball and field hockey, could live with the hope of the Olympics in the first attempt at independence. But since the period of transition to independence created a certain silence in these sports, we did not have a team in Atlanta either.

Champion flag bearer and a member of three teams

Participating in the Olympics as an independent country has opened the way for many athletes to Atlanta. Since it is not so easy to get into the strong USSR national teams, the Olympic path has become easier for our representatives. This gave dozens of athletes a chance to debut in a multi-sport competition. But there were also experienced ones in the team that went to Atlanta. Nazim Huseynov, who went to Barcelona with the CIS team 4 years ago, is going to repeat the championship he won at that time in the Azerbaijan national team. He went down in the history of the Olympics as the first flag bearer of our country. Valery Timokhin was our most experienced athlete who went to Atlanta. He went to the 3rd Olympics as part of the 3rd team. Our shooter fought as an athlete of USSR in Seoul-1988, CIS in Barcelona-1992, Azerbaijan in Atlanta-1996.

We discovered America: On the first day of August

The earnings of 23 athletes in the USA was one silver medal. The member of our wrestling nation was able to discover America. Our freestyle wrestler Namig Abdullayev won our first prize in the history of the Olympics. At that time, the foundation was laid for wrestlers to become leaders of the Azerbaijan Olympic team. Our wrestler, who was one step short of the championship, won the silver medal on August 1. That day was the first in the history of the Olympics of our sport.

Olympic motto for the Olympics

Most of our athletes heading to Atlanta preferred Pierre de Coubertin's Olympic motto. The principle "the main thing is not victory, but participation" has been applied to the sports in which our country is not strong in all Olympics, starting with the USA. Diving, swimming, athletics and fencing can be counted among such branches.

Stumblers on the last step and 61st place

Like Abdullayev, our other wrestlers could also win a medal in Atlanta. But our athletes, who are close to it, have stumbled sometimes one, sometimes two steps away from the medal. Our representatives were close to the prize in judo and boxing. Shooting and weightlifting did not give what was expected in the first Olympics. As a result, our team, which has one silver, returned from the USA as the owner of the 61st place in the medal ranking.

Vugar Kheyrullayev
Idman.biz