Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1524591
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 JULY 2024 ANALYSIS to Nauru, a curious journey Team Malta Five athletes, four disciplines Malta will field five athletes in four disciplines - shooting, judo, swimming and athletics. Gianluca Chetcuti will compete in shooting, while Katryna Esposito battled it out in the 48kg judo competition. Sasha Gatt and Kyle Micallef will take part in the 1,500m and 50m freestyle swimming events respectively, while track athlete Beppe Grillo will compete in the 100m race. Flagbearers Chetcuti and Gatt were the flag bearers for Team Malta during the opening ceremony held on the Seine River, where boats carrying each national delegation travelled the six-kilo- metre route in front of the Trocadéro, in a spectacular open- ing. Competitions 29 July: Gianluca Chetcuti qualifying event trap shooting (9am) 30 July: Chetcuti qualifying event trap shooting (9am); Sasha Gatt swimming 1,500m freestyle heats (11am) 01 August: Kyle Micallef swimming 50m heats (11 am) 03 August: Beppe Grillo athletics 100m race preliminary round (10:30am) Katryna Esposito competed in the 48kg judo event yesterday. Archery Artistic gymnastics Artistic swimming Athletics Badminton Basketball Basketball 3x3 Beach volleyball Boxing Breaking Canoe slalom Canoe sprint Cycling BMX freestyle Cycling BMX racing Cycling mountain bike Cycling road Cycling track Diving Equestrian Fencing Football Golf Handball Hockey Judo Marathon swimming Modern pentathlon Rhythmic gymnastics Rowing Rugby sevens Sailing Shooting Skateboarding Sport climbing Surfing Swimming Table tennis Taekwondo Tennis Trampoline Triathlon Volleyball Water polo Weightlifting Wrestling Team and to be eligible, ath- letes must be elite competitors in their respective sport and be refugees in their host country, recognised by UNCHR, the UN refugee agency. Balanced rep- resentation in terms of sport, gender and regions will also be taken into consideration. Smallest competing country There are 206 countries in the International Olympic Com- mittee and each will have at least one athlete participating in Paris 2024 games. Nauru, a small island nation situated in the Pacific Ocean, is the small- est country by population to compete in the Olympics. Na- uru has a population of around 12,100. It first competed in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and has yet to win a medal. Most medals The US has won a total of 3,105 medals, holding the overall record. This includes having won the most gold, silver and bronze medals won. Germany sits sec- ond with 1,211 medals, while the now defunct Soviet Union comes in third with 1,204 med- als. France and Great Britain clock in at fourth and fifth re- spectively with 1,039 and 1,036 medals. No medals There are more than 60 coun- tries that have participated in the Olympics but never won a medal. Malta is one of these countries. Security headache With Paris 2024 being held across different venues in and around the city, security has been a massive headache. But the French authorities have put up a games-time force of up to 45,000 police and gen- darmes, also backed up by a 10,000-strong contingent of soldiers that has set up the largest military camp in Paris since World War II. It is ex- pected that the soldiers should be able to reach any of the city's Olympic venues within 30 minutes. Rafale fighter jets, air- space-monitoring AWACS surveillance flights, Reaper surveillance drones, helicop- ters that can carry sharpshoot- ers, and equipment to disable drones are among the meas- ures that will police the Paris skies. Olympic sports at Paris 2024 A temporary venue has been set up at Place de La Concorde, which has been transformed into an urban sport park The Le Bourget climbing venue is one of only two facilities to be built specifically for the Olympic games