Olympic history of Costa Rica

CRC

1	1	2

The Comité Olímpico Nacional de Costa Rica is the National Olympic Committee of Costa Rica . It was founded in 1953 and recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1954 .

Costa Rica athletes first took part in summer games in 1936. No Olympic team was sent from 1948 to 1960. Since 1964, Costa Rican athletes have participated in all summer games. Costa Ricans participated in the Winter Games from 1980 to 1992, as well as from 2002 and 2006. Young athletes took part in the two youth summer games. So far, no athletes have been sent to the Youth Winter Games.

Overview

Summer games

The first medalist Sylvia Poll in 2013

Claudia Poll, Olympic champion 1996 (photo from 2011)

Even before the Costa Rican NOK was recognized, the country took part in the Olympic Games. In 1936 in Berlin, fencer Bernardo de la Guardia, the first Olympian from Costa Rica, took part. He was the only athlete on his team.

It wasn't until 1964 that a team from the country started again. Two judokas started in Tokyo. In 1968 the team consisted of athletes, boxers, swimmers, weightlifters, cyclists and marksmen. The athlete Jean Robotham was the first woman in Costa Rica to participate in the Olympic Games.

In 1976 Costa Rican archers took part for the first time. In Moscow in the same year a Costa Rican soccer selection started for the first time, which was eliminated in the preliminary round without winning a point. The swimmer María París managed to take part in the finals over 100 meters dolphin. She came in seventh. In Los Angeles in the same year, the soccer team dropped out again in the preliminary round. This time, however, she achieved her first victory. On the last day of the group they defeated the already qualified Italians 1-0.

In Seoul in 1988 Costa Rica celebrated its first medal win. The swimmer Silvia Poll won silver in the 200 meter freestyle. She had already reached the finals over 100 meters and was fifth. Another final participation she managed over 100 meters back. Here she came in sixth. In 1992 in Barcelona she reached the final over 200 meters back and finished 7th. In Barcelona, ​​canoeists from the country took part for the first time.

In Atlanta in 1996, Costa Rica achieved its first Olympic victory. Again there was the medal in swimming. This time it was Silvia's sister Claudia Poll who climbed onto the podium. She won the 200 meter freestyle final. She finished fifth over 400 meters. The cyclist José Andrés Benes finished sixth on a mountain bike. A diver in the country competed for the first time in Atlanta. In Sydney 2000 Claudia Poll swam to two more medals. She won bronze in the 200 and 400 meter freestyle. A tennis player and a triathlete were used for the first time for Costa Rica.

Claudia Poll also competed in Athens in 2004, but was unable to match her performances in Atlanta and Sydney. The men's soccer team survived the preliminary round this time, including a 4-2 win over Portugal. In the quarter-finals, however, they failed 4-0 to Argentina. For the first time a Costa Rican Taekwondoin took part. In 2008, 2012 and 2016 Costa Rica's participations were unsuccessful. Beach volleyball players competed for the first time in Rio de Janeiro.

Winter games

In 1980 in Lake Placid, Costa Rica made its Olympic debut at the Winter Games. The first winter athlete was Arturo Kinch , who took part in alpine skiing. In Sarajevo 1984 a biathlete from Costa Rica took part for the first time. Arturo Kinch started both in alpine skiing and cross-country skiing. He repeated this in 1988 in Calgary.

At the age of 45 and after a 14 year hiatus, Arturo Kinch took part in cross-country skiing in Salt Lake City in 2002. And Kinch was there again in Turin in 2006, now 49 years old. This makes him the oldest cross-country skier at the Olympic Winter Games to this day (as of 2017).

Youth games

Costa Rica sent five young athletes to the first Youth Games in Singapore in 2010 . A track and field athlete, a swimmer, a judoka, a fencer and a triathlete made up the Costa Rican team. Judoka Andrea Guillen won the bronze medal in the mixed judo team, consisting of eight participants from eight countries. This medal does not count as a Costa Rican medal, it is listed in the medal table for the mixed team.

In 2014 , three athletes took part in Nanjing . The best result was achieved by judoka Julian Sancho, who finished 5th in the weight class up to 66 kg.

Costa Rica has not yet participated in the Winter Youth Games.

Overview of the participants

Summer games

year	Athletes			Flag bearer	sports																Medals
	total	m	w																					total	rank
1896-1932	not participated
1936	1	1	0	Bernardo de la Guardia	1
1948-1960	not participated
1964	2	2	0			2
1968	18th	17th	1	Rodolfo Castillo			2	1	2	3	5	5
1972	3	3	0	Hugo Chamberlain		1	1					1
1976	5	4th	1	Maria París				1			1	1	2
1980	29	28	1	Maria París		3		2				6th	2	16
1984	28	27	1	Mariano Lara		4th	3	1				3		17th
1988	16	9	7th	Sigrid Niehaus		1	2	8th	1	1		1										1		1	36
1992	16	11	5	Alvaro Guardia	1		8th					1	1		4th
1996	11	6th	5	Henry Nuñez		2	2	3			1				2	1					1			1	49
2000	7th	5	2	Karina Fernández			1	3			1						1	1					2	2	69
2004	20th	17th	3	David Fernández		1		1			2	1		14th					1
2008	8th	6th	2	Allan Segura			3	2			2								1
2012	11	8th	3	Gabriela Traña		1	4th	2			2							1	1
2016	11	6th	5	Nery Brenes		1	3	1			3							1		2
total																					1	1	2	4th	89

Winter games

year	Athletes			Flag bearer	sports			Medals
	total	m	w								total	rank
1924-1976	not participated
1980	1	1	0	Arturo Kinch	1
1984	3	3	0		2	1	1
1988	2	2	0	Arturo Kinch	2	1
1992	4th	4th	0		4th
1994-1998	not participated
2002	1	1	0			1
2006	1	1	0	Arthur James Barton		1
2010-2018	not participated
total								0	0	0	0	-

Youth Summer Games

year	Athletes			Flag bearer	sports					Medals
	total	m	w										total	rank
2010	5	4th	1		1	1	1	1	1
2014	3	2	1			1	1		1
total										0	0	0	0	-

Youth Winter Games

year	Athletes			Flag bearer	sports	Medals
	total	m	w						total	rank
2012-2016	not participated
total						0	0	0	0	-

List of medal winners

Gold medals

Surname	Games	sport	discipline
Claudia Poll	1996 Atlanta	swim	200 meters freestyle

Silver medals

Surname	Games	sport	discipline
Sylvia Poll	1988 Seoul	swim	200 meters freestyle

Bronze medals

Surname	Games	sport	discipline
Claudia Poll	2000 Sydney	swim	200 meters freestyle
Claudia Poll	2000 Sydney	swim	400 meters freestyle

Medals by sport

sport	gold	silver	bronze	total
swim	1	1	2	4th
total	1	1	2	4th

Web link

• Costa Rica in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Costa Rica on Olympic.org  - The Official website of the Olympic movement (English)