Perfect timing. 10 days before the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games, the Americans lifted the veil on their Olympic delegation. Athletes, but also more political representation.
As announced several weeks ago, the “First Lady” will lead the official delegation to the opening ceremony, Friday July 23. The information was confirmed Tuesday July 13 by his office. Jill Biden will experience her second Games in the name of the White House in the Japanese capital, but the first in the summer. She accompanied her husband to the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010. Joe Biden then held the position of vice-president of the United States.
The American Olympic team will show up in force at the Tokyo Games. It will be the second largest in history, but the first for an edition of the Games organized outside the United States. She also promises to be the most feminine since the creation of the Olympic event.
The American Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) revealed it on Tuesday July 13: Team USA will have 613 athletes at the Tokyo Games. The number even reaches 627 athletes selected by adding the substitutes authorized in certain team events.
The United States had a larger delegation on only one occasion: at the Atlanta Games in 1996. The number of events there was smaller and the IOC had not yet invented the concept of additional sports, but the Americans were automatically qualified, as host country, in all team sports. At Atlanta 1996, the American team had 648 athletes.
According to Olympic historians, Team USA version Tokyo 2020 will take its place in 4th place among the most massive delegations since the creation of the modern Games, behind France at the Paris Games in 1900, Great Britain at London 1908, and the United States in Atlanta 1996.
The women will make up the numbers. For the third time in a row, more American women will put on the official uniform than their male colleagues. The list revealed by the USOPC lists 329, compared to 284 men. The percentage of women selected reaches almost 54%. It is the highest in the history of American participation in the Olympic Games. At the 2016 Rio Games, Team USA had 291 women.
The American delegation lists 193 athletes who have already participated in at least one edition of the Olympic Games. Among them, 104 medalists including 56 gold.
No less than eight quintuple Olympians were selected for the Tokyo Games: equestrians Steffen Peters and McLain Ward, basketball players Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, athletes Abdi Abdirahman and Allyson Felix, fencer Mariel Zagunis, water polo player Jesse Smith. Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi will be eyeing a fifth consecutive gold medal with the women's basketball team, whose last defeat at the Games dates back to Barcelona 1992.
The youngest member of the team will be swimmer Katie Grimes, aged 15, entered in the 800m. Dean ? The rider Phillip Dutton, 57 years old, already six Olympic participations under the saddle, including the first three (Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004) for his native country, Australia.
Another illustration of the growing feminization of the Olympic movement: Canada. Its delegation to the Tokyo Games, also unveiled on Tuesday July 13, includes 225 female athletes, compared to 145 male representatives. With a total of 371 athletes, it will be the largest since the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
In Tokyo, Canada will present 226 new Olympians, for 134 athletes who have already experienced the Olympic atmosphere at the Rio 2016 Games. The youngest is also a swimmer, Summer McIntosh, 14 years old. The oldest rides a horse: Mario Deslauriers, 56 years old. Present for the first time at the Los Angeles Games in 1984, he is still chasing his first Olympic medal.
