Mon. Nov 25th, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

Wales will have the most athletes at an Olympic Games in over a century after a record 31 were included in Team GB for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

It will be the largest contingent of Welsh athletes to go to an overseas Games.

Only once have there been more – 32 in London in 1908 – but back then Wales entered its own hockey team (and won bronze).

For 17 of the 31 Welsh athletes in Paris, this summer will bring an Olympic debut.

The youngest – gymnast Ruby Evans – is just 17. Sailor Chris Grube is the oldest at 39 and goes to his third Games.

Hopes are high for two 21-year-olds in swimmer Matt Richards and track cyclist Emma Finucane – who both won individual world titles last year and could light up the Games. Josh Tarling will go for gold in the men’s time trial.

Wales will have a table tennis player at an Olympics for the first time, as 18-year-old Anna Hursey is selected.

The nation’s fastest man of all time, Jeremiah Azu, will become the first Welshman to race the 100m at an Olympics in over half a century.

And Jade Jones will aim to become Wales’ greatest female Olympian with a third gold in taekwondo.

The class of 2024 will be hoping to beat the record 10 Olympic medals won by Welsh athletes at Rio 2016, with four of them gold.

Here is everything you need to know about the Welsh athletes in Paris.

Source link