We are the champions

TEAM Bahrain has lived up to its word, exhibiting a stellar performance at the Olympics this year, writes Patrick Oliver Salomon.

In the weeks leading up to the Paris 2024 Olympics, the Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) revealed their ambitious plan of a record-breaking participation at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad.

Fourteen athletes. Seven reigning or former world champions. All Asian, Arab, or Gulf champions. Five sports. 

The tiny island kingdom was once again looking to ‘punch above its weight’ on the global stage, and just over a month later, Team Bahrain delivered a knockout.

The BOC campaign boasted the slogan ‘Targeting a Historical Performance’, and the kingdom was right on the bull’s-eye.

At the Paris Olympics alone, Team Bahrain doubled the kingdom’s overall medal haul from the past 10 editions of its participation at the Summer Games. Heading into the French capital, Bahrain had only won four medals – two gold and two silver – bagged from London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021. Leaving Paris, the kingdom now has a glittering Olympic record of eight, thanks to the determination, discipline, and outstanding display of human ability by freshly crowned gold-medallists Akhmed Tazhudinov and Winfred Yavi, silver-medallist Salwa Eid Naser, and bronze-medallist Gor Minasyan.

They emerged as the best of Team Bahrain’s best, and helped the kingdom reach new heights in the grandest sporting arena, taking 33rd overall on the final medal tally amongst the 204 participating nations – 206 if including the refugee team and the squad of individual neutral athletes.

Bahrain were also ranked first amongst Arab nations and sixth in Asia.

Yavi kicked off the kingdom’s winning run on the evening of August 6. Competing in the final of the women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase in athletics, the event’s reigning world champion put in a sensational show, capturing the gold medal and setting a new Olympic record in the process.

The 24-year-old outsprinted Tokyo 2021 gold-medallist Peruth Chemutai of Uganda down the home straight to finish in a winning time of eight minutes 52.76 seconds – shattering the previous Olympics best of 8:58.81, set by Russian Gulnara Samitova-Galkina in Beijing 2008.

Also in athletics, Naser followed suit just three nights later on August 9 in the women’s 400m final.

Although she didn’t win gold, the 26-year-old sprinter, who is the event’s 2019 world champion, had an ultra-quick run, pushing gold-medallist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic until the end.

Naser clocked her season’s best mark of 48.53s as runner-up, and she helped rewrite the record books in more ways than one. She was part of an unbelievable race, as it was the first 400m dash in the history of athletics in which the first three women went sub-49 seconds, and also the first time ever that all eight participants dipped below the 50-second mark.

Such was the quality of talent in the field.

With two medals already in the bag captured by two of Team Bahrain’s star women athletes, it was the men’s turn to take centre stage.

Tazhudinov and Minasyan were both in action on August 10, and they did not disappoint.

Tazhudinov was first to showcase his prowess on the wrestling mat, where he won three straight matches against Amirali Azarpira of Iran, Alisher Yergali of Kazakhstan, and Kyle Snyder of the US to book his place in the men’s freestyle 97kg final and guarantee himself at least a silver-medal finish.

The 21-year-old reigning world champion would then secure his gold the very next day on August 11, when he stunned Givi Matcharashvili of Georgia after just 90 seconds with a victory by pin to clinch his Olympic title.

As for Minasyan, despite having to face some of the biggest names in all of weightlifting, he came away with a bronze in the men’s over-102kg division for Team Bahrain.

The 29-year-old posted a 461kg total in his event, which included a staggering 216kg lift in the snatch portion, followed by a 245kg best in the clean and jerk.

He was bested only by legendary lifter Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia, who claimed the gold medal in his third successive Olympics with a 470kg total, and Varazdat Lalayan of Armenia, who bagged the silver with a 467kg total.

The four medals of Tazhudinov, Yavi, Naser, and Minasyan headlined Team Bahrain’s historic Paris 2024 campaign.

The kingdom’s other Olympians included swimmers Amani Al Obaidli and Saud Ghali, judoka Askerbii Gerbekov, lifter Lesman Paredes, and runners Eunice Chumba, Tigist Gashaw, Rose Chelimo, Nelly Jepkosgei, Kemi Adekoya, and Birhanu Balew.