Another milestone for Uganda at the Paris Olympics

As the 33rd Olympiad starts in France on Friday, Uganda will celebrate another milestone at this year’s games, having again fielded 25 athletes from four sports disciplines.

It is the third time that Uganda fields such numbers, the first achieved in 1988 during the Seoul Games in South Korea and during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan.

Female athletes (13) outnumber their male counterparts (12) in Paris for the second consecutive time at the quadrennial games.

Uganda is fielding athletes in swimming which has been a mainstay through the universality card at the games, in cycling which returns to the games after more than 40 years, and for the second time in rowing, and in Uganda’s golden sport; athletics.

The games start today with the historic Opening Ceremony with 180 barges (long flat-bottomed boats) carrying athletes and sailing down the Seine River in the heart of the French capital. 

This will be the biggest and first outdoor opening ceremony of the Olympic Games beginning at 19:30 Paris time (8:30 pm Ugandan time). The ceremony promises to be an unprecedented experience, using the natural light of the setting sun in all its shades to illuminate the parade of the world's best athletes on the river.

Team Uganda is sponsored to the games by the government of Uganda through the National Council of Sports with additional support from Plascon, Sanlam Insurance, and Nile Special.

Kathleen Noble, competing in her second Olympics will be the first in action for Uganda in the preliminary Singles scull event tomorrow.

Her target is to make at least the quarter-finals at her second outing. At the Tokyo games, she finished fifth in the women’s single sculls Heat 2 and then narrowly missed out a place in the quarter-finals with a third-place finish in the repechage.