Albania competed at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's seventh appearance at the Olympics since its debut in 1972. The National Olympic Committee of Albania sent a total of 11 athletes to the Games, seven men and four women, to compete in four sports. Weightlifter

Hysen Pulaku Hysen Pulaku (born 8 December 1992) is an Albanian weightlifter. On July 23, 2012, Pulaku tested positive for stanozolol, a banned anabolic steroid. On July 28, the International Olympic Committee formally ejected Pulaku from the 2012 Summer Olympi ...

was officially removed from the team on the first day, after failing a drug test for the banned

anabolic steroid Anabolic steroids, also known as anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), are a class of drugs that are structurally related to testosterone, the main male sex hormone, and produce effects by binding to the androgen receptor (AR). Anabolism, Anaboli ...

substance, as announced by the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

. Albania, however, has yet to win its first ever Olympic medal. The Albanians competed in five sports with the same number of athletes like they did at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

in Beijing in China. This time around they couldn't improve on their previous achievements as they didn't future their two Wrestlers in Elis Guri and

Sahit Prizreni Sahit Prizreni (born 23 February 1983) is an Albanian-Australian former freestyle wrestler who is the current president of the Albanian Wrestling Federation from 6 December 2020. Career Albania He participated in Wrestling at the 2008 Summer O ...

. Albania competed in

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

with World Judo Juniors Champion of

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and twice European Junior Champion of 2009 and 2010 Majlinda Kelmendi, who made her debut at the Olympic games. She competed at the Women's 52 kg event. In the first round she defeated Jaana Sundberg from Finland. Before losing in the round of 16 to Mauritian Judoka Legentil. In Weightlifting Albania initially competed with four athletes three men and one female.

Briken Calja Briken Calja (born 19 February 1990, Elbasan) is an Albanian weightlifter, Olympian, and European Champion competing in the 69 kg category until 2018 and 73 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganize ...

had the best result for Albania as he finished 6th in his debut for Albania lifting 320 kg in total.

Romela Begaj Romela Aleksandër Begaj (born 2 November 1986) is an Albanian weightlifter. On 11 November 2014 in Almaty she became world champion in the Snatch style for the category up to 63 kg. Previously Begaj represented Albania at the 2008 Europ ...

competed for the second time for Albania but this time she wasn't able to improve on her result from the previous olympics as she finished 9th in the end.

Athletics

Albania has qualified 1 female quota place, and selected 1 male athlete by wildcard. ;Track & road events ;Field events

Judo

Albania had not initially qualified a judoka, but due to the

's refusal to allow Kosovars of Albanian ethnicity to represent

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

or to compete as independent athletes, Majlinda Kelmendi represented Albania at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Shooting

Swimming

Albanian swimmers are invited. One men and female.

Weightlifting

Albania has qualified three men and one female quota places. On 28 July, the

announced that

had tested positive for

stanozolol Stanozolol (Abbreviation, abbrev. Stz), sold under many brand names, is a synthetic androgen and anabolic steroid (AAS) medication derived from dihydrotestosterone (DHT). It is used to treat hereditary angioedema. It was developed by American ph ...

, a banned

, and consequently ejected him from the games.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Country at games navbox, Albania, Olympics Nations at the 2012 Summer Olympics

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2012 in Albanian sport