Sports, us and the Olympics: Those who didn’t have storm clouds in Foggy Albion - ANALYSIS

There are 63 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 9 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 5th attempt in London after Sydney, Athens and Beijing.

First in history, record will be repeated in Paris
Eight years after Athens-2004, the Olympics returned to Europe. The multi-sport competition was entrusted to London for the 3rd time. The capital of Great Britain thus entered the history of the Olympics with a new record. The first, signed by London, which has hosted the Games three times, will be repeated in Paris in 2024, with Los Angeles joining them four years later. In 1908 and 1948, the Foggy Albion won the right to host the Olympics, competing with Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow. More than 10,000 athletes from 204 countries and 2 neutral teams competed for 302 sets of medals in 26 sports at the Jubilee XXX Games.

We left "50" behind
The Azerbaijani national team, which has a tradition of being represented by more athletes at every Olympics, continued the trend in London. Our country, which sent 44 athletes to Beijing-2008, left behind "50" this time. Our team went to Foggy Albion with 53 athletes. 39 of them were male and 14 female athletes. There has been a big jump in the number of sports represented. The Azerbaijan national team, which competed in 10 sports in Beijing, increased this figure to 14. This was our new record in the history of the Olympics. Although this indicator was repeated four years later, it has remained unsurpassed to this day.

Restored tradition and debuts
Olympics held in the capital of Great Britain were remembered by the debut of the Azerbaijan team in four sport branches. Our representatives performed for the first time in rowing, canoe-sprint and cycling. The rowing base, which provided athletes to the USSR national team, has restored its old traditions, while cyclists and canoeists performed at such a level for the first time. Another debut happened in gymnastics. Long after the period when we participated in the Olympics with the CIS team, we were lucky enough to go to the multi-sport competition in this type of gymnastics. Fencing, after the break, again joined the types represented by our nation. In shooting, unlike four years ago, this time we were left out in the stand type.

They lost by a neck
It was not possible to break the unpleasant streak this time either. Our team was left out of London in the team categories. But as in the last two Olympics, there was luck again. Our female field hockey players, who were one step away from Beijing-2008, stumbled again at the last moment. Our team competed in the third qualifying tournament. Our team lost again in the final - the match that gave the license. But this time the tournament was not held in Baku, but in Japan, our opponent in the final. Having defeated Malaysia 4:0, Belarus 3:0, and Austria 5:0, our national team did not finish the tournament well. At the end, he lost points in the matches against Japan (1:4) and Chile (2:2). Being 2nd among 6 teams with 10 points gave our team the opportunity to play in the final against Japan. The team coached by Rashad Alizada lost 1:5 and remained one step away from London. Victoria Shahbazova's election as the best goalkeeper of the tournament was only a consolation.

Our volleyball players stopped in the tie-break
After 8 years, our women's volleyball players again hosted the European Preliminary Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Baku. The team that lost to Bulgaria in the group and beat Denmark (3:0) qualified for the semi-finals. At this stage, after the victory over the Czech Republic (3:1), the path of our national team was blocked again by Bulgaria. This time, our team faced defeat in the tie-break. This defeat closed the team's way to the European Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

If there is no team, there is a couple
In the first Olympics, where we were represented in two types of gymnastics, our team was close to a medal. Although the performance of our gymnast was not well received, Aliya Garayeva was one step away from bronze in rhythmic gymnastics - 4th place.
Four years ago, our rhythmic gymnastics team participated in the Olympics in group exercises, but our national team was not represented in London. Instead, for the first time, our representatives fought in pairs. The duo of Sergiy Bezugliy and Maksim Prokopenko not only participated in the canoe sprint, but even came close to the medal. They came 4th in the final stage and were one step away from the prize. Valentin Demyanenko, who had high hopes, was left out of the finals. In rowing, Aleksandar Aleksandrov took the 5th place, while Nataliya Mustafayeva managed to reach the B final. Our only fencer, Sabina Mikina, could not pass the 1/8 final barrier.

It’s the participation that matters
Our representatives in sports, which are traditionally foreign to our country, went to London with the principle of " It’s the participation that matters". It was not worth waiting for a successful result in athletics, where the number of our representatives increased to 3, in swimming, where we had 2 athletes again, in horse riding, where we participated again, and in cycling, where we made our debut. The same can be said about shooting, which has already entered a period of decline.

Fighting team and boxing tradition
Our Olympic team, which has been stronger in fighting types throughout its history, also distinguished itself in London. After Atlanta-1996, our national boxing won a medal in the 4th Olympic Games in a row. Our leather glove makers have increased the number of representatives from 2 to 8 compared to Beijing-2008. Two of them, Teymur Mammadov and Mahammadrasul Majidov, advanced to the semi-finals and got bronze. With this, our national boxing team repeated the record of 8 years ago.

The number of judokas has also increased to 8. Although two members of our team, Telman Karimov and Elmar Gasimov, who won 2 medals in Beijing, advanced to the quarter-finals, they took 7th place with two consecutive defeats.

The failure of the national flag-bearer was repeated this time. Beijing-2008 champion Elnur Mammadli already stopped fighting in the first match - 1/32 final.

The number of taekwondo players has also increased. One of our two representatives reached the quarter-finals. However, Ramin Azizov stopped at this stage.

Irresistible wrestlers
Although there was an increase in many sports, the strongest side of the Azerbaijani national team experienced the opposite process. One license has been reduced in each type of wrestling. As a result, our team went to London with 12 athletes. But this was enough for records.
Our wrestlers won 7 medals in England. Our nation was happy with 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals. This was a record for our team at that time.
Our freestyle wrestlers again surpassed other sports. Togrul Askerov and Sharif Sharifov were happy with gold, and Khetag Gazyumov with bronze. The other teams took one silver and one bronze each. Rovshan Bayramov and Maria Stadnik were 2nd, Emin Ahmadov and Yuliya Ratkevich were 3rd. Two more wrestlers missed the award at the last minute. Jabrayil Hasanov lost in the freestyle, Hasan Aliyev lost in the match for bronze in the "classic".

First and lost medal
Azerbaijan’s weightlifting team went to London with 6 athletes. This is an increase compared to four years ago. But the results were not encouraging. Velichko Cholakov refused to participate in the race at the last minute due to injury, and Afgan Bayramov could not finish the race. Boyanka Kostova, who had high hopes, was satisfied with the 5th place. Two other athletes of ours also took place in the top ten.

And Valentin Hristov went down in the history of the Olympics as our first weightlifter to win a medal. But his silver medal was taken temporarily. So, after a few years, Hristov's medal was taken away after it was revealed that he was using doping. This is the second prize lost in the Olympic history of Azerbaijan.

Historic record
Although the Azerbaijani national team returned from London with 10 medals, this number was later reduced to 9, due to Hristov. Our athletes won 2 gold, 2 silver and 5 bronze awards in Foggy Albion without falling into the fog. Although this was a record for the number of awards at the time, the mark has since been surpassed. According to the quality of the medals, the result of 12 years ago is an absolute record. Our national team repeated the gold medal record in Sydney-2000.

One record of our team in London is still intact. Our national team was 30th in the medal ranking in Great Britain. Our team improved its result in Sydney by 4 steps.

Vugar Kheyrullayev
Idman.biz