At Sydney 2000, weightlifter Maria Isabel Urrutia won Colombia’s first Olympic gold medal.
Colombia first participated at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932 when marathoner Jorge Perry Villate was their sole competitor. They sent a six-man team to the last London Games in 1948 to compete in athletics, fencing and swimming.
Colombia’s first Olympic medal went to shooter Helmut Bellingrodt, who grabbed silver in the 50m running target in Munich in 1972, and again, in the same event, 12 years later at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games.
Boxer Alfonso Perez took lightweight bronze in 1972 and Clemente Rochas the featherweight bronze at the same Games, a feat emulated by Jorge Julio Eliecer in the bantamweight division at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games.
Ximena Restrepo was the first Colombian woman to claim a medal when she finished third in the 400m at the Barcelona 1992 Games.
In Athens 2004 Maria Luisa Calle took bronze in the women’s points race and weightlifter Mabel Mosquera won featherweight bronze.
Colombia’s team of 67 in Beijing was the largest in their history. Weightlifter Diego Fernandez Salazar was a silver medallist in the men’s featherweight and wrestler Jacqueline Renteria won a bronze in women’s freestyle at lightweight.
Anthem: Title
Oh! Gloria Inmarcesible (Oh Unfading Glory!)
Anthem: Year of Induction
1946
Anthem: Composer
Music Oreste Sindici, words Rafael Nuñez (four time President).
Official NOC/NPC name
Colombia
IOC recognition date
1948
NOC/NPC President’s name
Mr Baltazar Medina
NOC/NPC General Secretary’s name
Mr Alberto Ferrer Vargas
IOC Member’s Name
Mr Andres Botero Phillipsbourne, Mr Fidel Mendoza Carrasquilla (Honorary)
Year of first appearance in an Olympic and Paralympic Games
1932
Number of appearances in Olympic and Paralympic Games
18, including London 2012
About CHN
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