East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

(Timor-Leste) competed at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, which was held from 13 to 29 August. The nation's appearance at the 2004 Athens Games marked its official debut in any Olympic event and also the Summer Olympics. Two track and field athletes, Gil da Cruz Trindade and

Agueda Amaral Aguida (or Agueda) Amaral (born 27 May 1972) is an East Timorese athlete. She was one of the first athletes to represent East Timor at the Olympic Games, and the first woman to represent the nation, when she ran the marathon at the 2000 Summer ...

, were selected to represent the nation via wildcards, as the nation had no athletes that met either the "A" or "B" qualifying standards in their respective events, the Men's and

Women's A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

marathons. At 32 years and 88 days, Amaral became the oldest athlete to represent the nation at the Summer Games, which still stands today. She was also selected as the nation's first

flag bearer A standard-bearer, also known as a colour-bearer or flag-bearer, is a person who bears an emblem known as a standard or military colours, i.e. either a type of flag or an inflexible but mobile image, which is used (and often honoured) as a ...

for the

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

. Ultimately, neither athlete won a medal in their events, with Trindade not even finishing his marathon. This therefore meant that East Timor won no medals in the Athens Games.

Background

Although this was the official Summer Olympics debut for East Timor, East Timorese athletes had competed as individual Olympic athletes in the 2000 Summer Olympics in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Because the athletes did not win a medal at the previous Olympics, no athlete from the nation had won a medal prior to the 2004 Athens Games. The

National Olympic Committee of East Timor National Olympic Committee of Timor Leste (, IOC code: TLS) is the National Olympic Committee representing East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste. See also *East Timor at the Olympics External links National Olympic Committee of East Timor
...

(NOC) selected two athletes via wildcards. Usually, a NOC would be able to enter up to three qualified athletes in each individual event as long as each athlete met the "A" standard, or one athlete per event if they met the "B" standard.

Athletics

;Men ;Women

References

External links

* * {{Country at games navbox, East Timor, Olympics 2004 in East Timorese sport

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Nations at the 2004 Summer Olympics