FC Barcelona sportspersons at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Once again, FC Barcelona has the honour of showing it is a world renowned multisport Club. Now, with the world's most global competition in the Olympic Games about to start, no fewer than 25 sportspersons from Barça's different disciplines will be in Paris aiming to bring back medals.
Although the Paris 2024 Olympic Games officially start on July 26 with the opening ceremony, running through to August 11, we will have to keep an eye on the blaugranes in the coming days, as both the men's and women's football begin before the official start date. A total of 25 blaugranes will be involved in four different sports - football, basketball, handball, and athletics, and many of them will have high expectations of coming back with a medal around their necks.
Athletics: a flying sportsman and an honorary flag bearer
Athletics is always one of the disciplines that attracts most fans to the Olympics, and this Paris edition will be no exception. Unfortunately on this occasion, FC Barcelona is only providing one athlete, but all the same, it's the impressive Jordan Díaz. He deserted the Cuban team in 2021, which in turn meant he couldn't compete at Tokyo 2020, which took place in 2021 due to the pandemic. He gained Spanish nationality a year later, and after breaking national records as a blaugrana, he was crowned European triple jump champion with a distance that will go down in the record books - 18.18 metres - in his first competition representing Spain. It was in fact the third longest jump in history, making the Hispano-Cuban one of the big favourites for the gold medal.
Díaz starts competing on August 7 at 7.15pm CEST, and if qualifies for the final, that's on the 9th at 8.10pm CEST.
Another great triple jump option, in the women's event this time, has been lost due to the injury sustained by Venezuela's Yulimar Rojas. The world record holder and four-time outdoor world champion, winner of gold in Tokyo, won't be competing in Paris due to an Achilles tendon problem. But she will be attending as one of her country's flag bearers together with weightlifter Julio Mayora.
Basketball: Two veterans and one new face
All three of Barça's basketball players are wearing the Spain jersey. Captain Álex Abrines and centre Willy Hernangómez are going for the third time, having won bronze in Rio 2016.
And they are joined by youngster Darío Brizuela following the Basque guard's first season as a blaugrana. But having won Eurobasket 2022 and also competed at the 2023 world championship, he is no stranger to this level of competition.
Spain are in Group A together with the ever-strong Greece, a Canada side featuring NBA stars like Jamal Murray, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dillon Brooks and an experienced Australia squad with veterans like Patty Mills and Joe Ingles. Spain need to finish in the top two, although some best third-placed teams will also progress.
The group phase runs from July 27 to August 2, and if Spain progress, they'll play a quarter final on August 6.
Handball: Nine players and six countries
The European champions, as usual, have a host of handballers going to the Olympics. No fewer than nine playing for six teams, half of those competing. Group A includes Spain (Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas, Aleix Gómez and Javi Rodríguez); Sweden (Jonathan Carlsbogård and Hampus Wanne) and Slovenia (Blaz Janc), while coach Carlos Ortega is also going as Japan boss.
And in Group B there's host nation and defending champions France (Dika Mem and Melvyn Richardson, and Denmark (Emil Nielsen). The groups run from July 27 to August 4.
Football: nine women and three men
But the biggest blaugrana contingent are the footballers. No fewer than nine Barça players are in Montse Tomé's squad that's taking Spain to the Olympics for the first time ever. These are goalkeeper Cata Coll, defenders Jana Fernández, Irene Paredes and Ona Batlle, midfielders Aitana Bonmatí, Alèxia Putellas and Patri Guijarro, and forwards Vicky López and Salma Paralluelo. The world champions are going to Paris with only one thing in mind: gold.
They are playing Japan (July 25 at 5pm CEST), former blaugrana Oshoala and Nigeria (July 28 at 7pm) and Brazil (July 31 at 5pm), hoping to finish among the top two and advance to the quarter final on August 6.
As for the men, Barça is represented by centre backs Eric Garcia and Pau Cubarsí, and midfielder Fermín López, recent winner of Euro 2024. They start on July 24 against Uzbekistan, then on July 27 they play the Dominican Republic and Egypt on July 30. The quarter finals are on August 2, and Spain will expect to be there.
Barça came back with 13 medals from Tokyo, including five golds for Yulimar Rojas (triple jump) and Ludovic Fàbregas, Timothey N'Guessan, Dika Mem and Melvyn Richardson (handball). There were four football silver medallists, namely Fridolina Rolfö (Sweden) and Pedri, Eric Garcia and Mingueza (Spain) and four handball bronzes for Spaniards Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas, Raúl Entrerríos, Aleix Gómez and Ángel Fernández.