There are 70 days left until the start of the Paris-2024 Summer Olympic Games, which will be held on July 26.

Idman.biz continues the series of articles dedicated to the most prestigious multi-sport competition of the quadrennial, which will start on Friday after 10 weeks.

In the period until Paris-2024, we remember the summer Olympics in which Azerbaijani athletes participated in the years of independence. The Azerbaijani national team, whose debut was made in Atlanta in 1996, made his fourth attempt in Beijing.

For the first time in Asia
At every Olympics, Azerbaijan participates in a new continent. This time, they experienced multi-sport competition of Asia for the first time. Beijing, the capital of China, was waiting for our Olympians, who competed in America, Australia and Europe. Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka also wanted to host the XXIX Games. However, Beijing, which outshone all its competitors in both rounds of voting, embraced the competition. This time, about 11,000 athletes from 204 countries competed for 302 sets of medals.

The Renewed Record
Azerbaijan national team continued the tradition of being represented by more athletes in each Olympics in Beijing. Our country, which sent 38 athletes to the competition four years ago, was represented by 44 people this time. There were 30 men and 14 women in the team. This number was the same again in our national team, which competed in 10 sports in Athens. But this time, our country was excluded from fencing. Instead, an Azerbaijani athlete performed for the first time in horse riding.

One Step Away from Beijing
Azerbaijan has once again gained a favorable opportunity for its Olympic debut in the team sport. If four years ago, our women's volleyball players missed such an opportunity, this time our ladies in field hockey were close to a historic success. Again, the tournament where the owner of the sole license was determined was organized in Baku. Unlike our volleyball players, the performance of the hockey players caused greater sadness. If in the tournament 4 years ago, our national team did not even come close to qualifying for the Olympics, our hockey team lost in the last match, in the last minutes - just one step away from Beijing. Having defeated Chile 2:1, Kenya 13:0, and Belarus 3:0, our hockey players were stronger than Ukraine after losing to Spain (0:4) - 5:0. The regulation pitted the first two place holders against each other in the final match for the license. Our team, which equalized the score twice in the meeting with Spain, could not respond to the late goal - 2:3. This crossed the line of the dream of going to China.

Our first in Beijing
Asian Olympics was rich with firsts. For the first time in our sports history, participation in the team competition took place. True, this team was not in sports. Our rhythmic gymnastics team is on their way to the Olympics. The team consisting of 6 athletes qualified and went to the final. This is also considered a success. In individual performances, one of our two gymnasts reached the finals. Aliya Garayeva managed to be 6th in Beijing.

History Written on the Tatami
Olympics in China came down to the history of Azerbaijani judo with the winning of first medal. This award was gold-plated. Elnur Mammadli defeated all his rivals and fulfilled his dreams in China. This medal was also Azerbaijan's only championship in the competition in Asia. But our judokas were not satisfied with one medal. Mevlud Miraliyev won bronze. Compared to the previous Olympics, our national judo team, which went to the competition with a larger team - 6 athletes, was close to two more medals. Mehman Azizov and Elkhan Mammadov stopped fighting in consolation matches.

Continuation of Boxing Series, Stumbling at the Eleventh Hour
There has been a sharp decrease in the number of licenses in some sports. This number has decreased from 5 in athletics and from 9 to 2 in boxing. But our leather glove makers managed to insure this reduction with a medal. Shahin Imranov advanced to the semi-finals in Beijing and won the bronze prize. With this, our national boxing team was represented on the victory podium at the third consecutive Olympics.

Four years ago, we participated in the competition with 2 taekwondo players, this time only one athlete went. Rashad Ahmadov is one step away from the honorary chair. Our athlete, who first lost in the semi-final, also failed in the match for the bronze medal.

This time, we were represented only in the stand in shooting, where the same decrease was experienced. In athletics and swimming, as well as in shooting, our representatives were not only far from the awards, but even from the final stage. Our weightlifters were also left without awards. Turan Mirzayev and Nizami Pashayev, who settled for the 5th place, were close to the medal.

Record, record, record
The success in wrestling, which is considered the number one sport in Azerbaijan, continued in China as well. Our wrestlers have left their mark on Asian countries. For the first time in the history of our nation, it was represented in all three sports at the Olympics. The debut of women's wrestling, as well as group movements in rhythmic gymnastics, took place in Beijing.

7 wrestlers in freestyle wrestling, 6 in Greco-Roman wrestling, 3 in women's wrestling, a total of 16 wrestlers went to Asia. All four of these numbers still stand as records. True, female wrestlers managed to repeat that result once, but they did not pass.

Until now, our wrestling team, which has won a medal in every Olympics, went on a medal hunt in China. At that time, our representatives won 4 medals, experienced the excitement of two finals, and were happy with the first success in women's wrestling. If our "classics" Rovshan Bayramov and Vitaliy Rahimov lost only in the finals, Khetag Gazyumov won the first Olympic medal in freestyle wrestling and Maria Stadnik in women's wrestling. Both of them won bronze. 5 more athletes were close to the medal. Namig Sevdimov, Zalimkhan Huseynov, Shalva Gadabadze, Olesya Zamula lost in the consolation stage, Novruz Temrezov in the quarter-finals. Farid Mansurov, the flag-bearer of our team in Beijing, went to double the gold he won four years ago, but ended the competition, which he started from the 1/8 finals, with a defeat in the first match.

The First Lost Medal
For many years, we have accepted that our medals in the Olympics were 1 in Atlanta, 3 in Sydney, 5 in Athens, 7 in Beijing, and 9 in London. This growth rate was spoiled much later. The streak was broken by the loss of one of the medals in the Chinese capital. In 2016, the International Olympic Committee deprived Vitaliy Rahimov of his silver medal 8 years ago. It went down in history as the first prize we lost. Our Greco-Roman wrestler was disqualified because he was caught in a doping test. As a result, the number of our medals in Beijing-2008 decreased from 7 to 6, the number of our wrestlers in the finals decreased from 2 to 1, and the awards decreased from 4 to 3. Our team's achievements in Asia have become 1 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze. Our team took the 44th place in the medal ranking.

Vugar Kheyrullayev
Idman.biz