Venezuela at the Olympics

Venezuela at the Olympics
IOC code	VEN
NOC	Venezuelan Olympic Committee
Website	cov.com.ve (in Spanish)
Medals Ranked 82nd	Gold 3 Silver 7 Bronze 9 Total 19
Summer appearances
1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024
Winter appearances
1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018–2022

Venezuela first participated at the Olympic Games in 1948, and has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since then. Venezuela has also participated in the Winter Olympic Games since 1998. The Venezuelan Olympic Committee (COV) was created in 1935.

The first Venezuelan athlete to participate in the Olympic Games was cyclist Julio César León in London 1948. In 1968 Francisco Rodríguez earned the first gold medal. The first Venezuelan to participate in the Winter Olympic Games was Iginia Boccalandro, in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Venezuelan athletes have won a total of nineteen medals, all at Summer Games, with boxing (six medals; one gold, three silver, two bronze) being the most successful sport. The most successful Olympian is Yulimar Rojas, Venezuela's only multi-medalist in a regular Games, with one gold and one silver in women's triple jump.

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The first Venezuelan athlete to participate in the Olympic Games was Trujillo cyclist Julio César León in London 1948.^[1]

In the 1952 Summer Olympics, Asnoldo Devonish earned a bronze medal which became the first Olympic medal in the country's sports history. In 1968 Francisco Rodríguez earned the first gold medal; obtaining silver and bronze medals in various games until 1984. The first Venezuelan to participate in the Winter Olympic Games was Iginia Boccalandro in Nagano 1998. Rafael Vidal was bronze medalist in the 200 m butterfly in swimming at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Arlindo Gouveia won a gold medal in taekwondo in Barcelona 1992, but at that time the sport only participated as an exhibition. That medal, along with the bronze medal won by Adriana Carmona in the same sport, are counted as official by the Venezuelan Taekwondo Federation since 2018.^[2]

Venezuela participated in the 2004 Athens Games with 48 athletes, winning two bronze medals with Adriana Carmona and Israel Rubio in taekwondo and weightlifting.^[3]

Venezuela participated in the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics thanks to Werner Hoeger in the luge specialty.

In the 2008 Beijing Games, Venezuela became the only country (only behind the host China) to double the number of athletes qualified with respect to the previous games, going from 48 athletes in Athens 2004 to 108 athletes in 2008, making it the delegation with the greatest progress with respect to the last games. For this occasion, Venezuela qualified for the first time 3 team sports, men's and women's volleyball and the women's softball team. Previously, only in 1980 in Moscow (soccer) and in Barcelona 1992 (basketball) had Venezuela been able to qualify team sports.^[4] In these games, Venezuelan Dalia Contreras won the bronze medal in Taekwondo in the 49 kilograms category, after defeating Kenyan Mildred Alango 1–0.^[5]

Fencer Rubén Limardo wins the third gold medal for the nation. Limardo also becomes the first Latin American to win a gold medal in fencing since 1904, over 100 years ago.

Venezuela achieves its 4th participation in the 2004 Winter Olympic Games thanks to the athlete Antonio Pardo Andretta in the alpine skiing specialty.

In these Olympic Games, Venezuela almost achieved a number of athletes almost equal to that of Beijing 2008, and even achieved a better record of medals than in those Olympic Games, with a total of three medals in the categories of boxing, cycling and athletics by the Venezuelan representatives: Yoel Finol, Yulimar Rojas and Stefany Hernández, thus completing their participation in these Olympic Games with one bronze medal and two silver medals.

In these Olympic Games, Venezuela competes with 44 athletes being its smallest delegation since 1988, obtaining 4 medals; 3 silver medals won by Julio Mayora and Keydomar Vallenilla in weightlifting and Daniel Dhers in BMX freestyle and a gold by Yulimar Rojas in triple jump, who broke the world and Olympic record in the history of this category of athletics in the Olympic Games, with a mark of 15. 67 meters, in addition to becoming the first woman to receive a gold medal in the history of the Olympic Games for Venezuela.

Games	Athletes	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
1896 Athens	did not participate
1900 Paris
1904 St. Louis
1908 London
1912 Stockholm
1920 Antwerp
1924 Paris
1928 Amsterdam
1932 Los Angeles
1936 Berlin
1948 London	1	0	0	0	0	–
1952 Helsinki	38	0	0	1	1	43
1956 Melbourne	19	0	0	0	0	–
1960 Rome	17	0	0	1	1	44
1964 Tokyo	16	0	0	0	0	–
1968 Mexico City	36	1	0	0	1	30
1972 Munich	26	0	0	0	0	–
1976 Montreal	36	0	1	0	1	35
1980 Moscow	48	0	1	0	1	33
1984 Los Angeles	26	0	0	3	3	41
1988 Seoul	18	0	0	0	0	–
1992 Barcelona	36	0	0	0	0[A]	–
1996 Atlanta	39	0	0	0	0	–
2000 Sydney	51	0	0	0	0	–
2004 Athens	48	0	0	2	2	68
2008 Beijing	110	0	0	1	1	86
2012 London	69	1	0	0	1	50
2016 Rio de Janeiro	87	0	2	1	3	65
2020 Tokyo	44	1	3	0	4	46
2024 Paris	33	0	0	0	0	–
2028 Los Angeles	future event
2032 Brisbane
Total		3	7	9	19	82

Games	Athletes	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
1924 Chamonix	did not participate
1928 St. Moritz
1932 Lake Placid
1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen
1948 St. Moritz
1952 Oslo
1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo
1960 Squaw Valley
1964 Innsbruck
1968 Grenoble
1972 Sapporo
1976 Innsbruck
1980 Lake Placid
1984 Sarajevo
1988 Calgary
1992 Albertville
1994 Lillehammer
1998 Nagano	1	0	0	0	0	–
2002 Salt Lake City	4	0	0	0	0	–
2006 Turin	1	0	0	0	0	–
2010 Vancouver	did not participate
2014 Sochi	1	0	0	0	0	–
2018 Pyeongchang	did not participate
2022 Beijing
2026 Milano Cortina	future event
2030 French Alps
2034 Salt Lake City
Total		0	0	0	0	–

Sports	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
Boxing	1	3	2	6	33
Athletics	1	1	1	3	62
Fencing	1	0	0	1	27
Weightlifting	0	2	1	3	50
Cycling	0	1	1	2	37
Taekwondo	0	0	2	2	35
Shooting	0	0	1	1	68
Swimming	0	0	1	1	56
Total	3	7	9	19	75

Gender	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Men	2	6	6	14
Women	1	1	3	5
Mixed	0	0	0	0
Total	3	7	9	19

Medal	Name	Games	Sport	Event
Bronze	Asnoldo Devonish	1952 Helsinki	Athletics	Men's triple jump
Bronze	Enrico Forcella	1960 Rome	Shooting	Men's 50-metre rifle prone
Gold	Francisco Rodríguez	1968 Mexico City	Boxing	Men's light flyweight
Silver	Pedro Gamarro	1976 Montreal	Boxing	Men's welterweight
Silver	Bernardo Piñango	1980 Moscow	Boxing	Men's bantamweight
Bronze	Marcelino Bolívar	1984 Los Angeles	Boxing	Men's light flyweight
Bronze	Omar Catari	1984 Los Angeles	Boxing	Men's featherweight
Bronze	Rafael Vidal	1984 Los Angeles	Swimming	Men's 200-metre butterfly
Bronze	Adriana Carmona	2004 Athens	Taekwondo	Women's +67 kg
Bronze	Israel Jose Rubio	2004 Athens	Weightlifting	Men's 62 kg
Bronze	Dalia Contreras	2008 Beijing	Taekwondo	Women's 49 kg
Gold	Rubén Limardo	2012 London	Fencing	Men's épée
Silver	Yulimar Rojas	2016 Rio de Janeiro	Athletics	Women's triple jump
Silver	Yoel Finol	2016 Rio de Janeiro	Boxing	Men's flyweight
Bronze	Stefany Hernández	2016 Rio de Janeiro	Cycling	Women's BMX
Gold	Yulimar Rojas	2020 Tokyo	Athletics	Women's triple jump
Silver	Julio Mayora	2020 Tokyo	Weightlifting	Men's 73 kg
Silver	Keydomar Vallenilla	2020 Tokyo	Weightlifting	Men's 96 kg
Silver	Daniel Dhers	2020 Tokyo	Cycling	Men's BMX freestyle

Athlete	Sport	Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Yulimar Rojas	Athletics	2016, 2020	1	1	0	2

This table shows how the designation of most successful Venezuelan Olympian has progressed over time.

Athlete	Sport	Date	Gender				Total
Asnoldo Devonish	Athletics	23 July 1952	M	0	0	1	1
Enrico Forcella	Shooting	1960	M	0	0	1	1
Francisco Rodríguez	Boxing	October 1968	M	1	0	0	1
Rubén Limardo	Fencing	2012	M	1	0	0	1
Yulimar Rojas	Athletics	1 August 2021	F	1	1	0	2

• ^A Venezuela won two demonstration medals in taekwondo (one gold and one bronze) at the 1992 Summer Olympics. As a demonstration sport, the medals are not recognized as Olympic medals by the International Olympic Committee; the Venezuelan Taekwondo Federation says that the 1992 medals are recognized and lists them among the nation's taekwondo medals, but all other countries and athletes who received medals in the sport in 1992 do not recognize their own medals, and do not count them toward the all-time total of medals of their respective countries. For accuracy and consistency, those of Venezuela are not counted.^[6][7][8]
  See also: Taekwondo at the 1992 Summer Olympics

• List of flag bearers for Venezuela at the Olympics
• Category:Olympic competitors for Venezuela
• Venezuela at the Paralympics
• Tropical nations at the Winter Olympics

• "Venezuela". International Olympic Committee.
• "Venezuela". Olympedia.com.
• "Olympic Analytics/VEN". olympanalyt.com.