Seychelles Trio Selected for 2024 Paris Olympics
Written by Editor on 9th July 2024
2024 Paris Olympics: 3 Athletes from Seychelles Selected
Three athletes will represent Seychelles at the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, scheduled for July 26 to August 11, a top government official announced on Tuesday.
The announcement was made by Marie-Celine Zialor, the Minister responsible for Sports, in response to a private notice question (PNQ) from the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Sebastien Pillay.
“Our athletes this year received invitations to compete, or as we call them, wild cards, and according to the National Olympic Committee, there are three. Two in swimming and one in athletics. When we spoke to them yesterday (Monday), they were still awaiting invitations for two other athletes, one in judo and the other in canoeing,” said Zialor.
Simon Bachmann will represent Seychelles in swimming, while Khema Elizabeth and Dylan Sicobo will compete in athletics.
No Seychellois athletes qualified for the Paris Olympics. In contrast, two athletes qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics: sailor Rodney Govinden and swimmer Felicity Passon. The Seychelles Aquatics Federation (SAF) recently announced that Passon has retired from swimming.
This will be Khema’s first participation in the Olympic Games, while Bachmann will be making his second appearance, having competed in the 200m butterfly race at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Sprinter Sicobo will also be representing Seychelles at the Olympic Games for the first time.
To date, Seychelles has never won an Olympic medal. Boxer Roland Raforme came close in the 1992 Barcelona Games, losing in the quarterfinals to Hungary’s Zoltán Béres. Four years later, Rival Payet narrowly missed a medal in the quarterfinals of the 1996 Atlanta Games, losing to Uzbekistan’s Karim Tulyaganov.
The 2024 Paris Games will feature 329 events across 32 sports, with 10,672 athletes, equally split between male and female participants.
By SN – Edited by JR
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