The Paris 2024 Olympic Games have already begun and the stories continue to captivate miles away from the slopes. Although there are large delegations, such as the United States or China, there are others that barely have representatives at the biggest sporting event of the year. There are four national Olympic committees that will only have one participant in the event: Nauru, Somalia, Belize and Liechtenstein. The country’s sporting hopes rest on the shoulders of only one man because in the case of all of those mentioned, they have never won an Olympic medal.

Let’s start with Nauru, which has the peculiarity that 90% of its adult population is obese. Given such a background, it is already a feat that Winzar Kakiouea is qualified to compete in the men’s 100 meters. The island country is located in Micronesia, in the Central Pacific Ocean with a population of just over 11 thousand inhabitants. Among them, Kakiouea stands out, who holds the national record for that country with a record of 10.82 seconds.

Somalia, for its part, is considered one of the poorest countries in the world and will have Ali Idow Hassan in the 800 meter dash as its ambassador in Paris. He will be competing in his second Olympic Games after competing in Tokyo 2020. Among the 18 million inhabitants of the African country, the athlete emerged, who logically was the bearer of the Somali flag at the inauguration.

In the case of the paradise Caribbean island of Belize, they will also participate in athletics. Shaun Gill will also be present in the 100 meter dash, where he will compete in his second Olympic Games after his debut in Tokyo. He arrives with a best mark of 10.88, somewhat far from the estimated classification times in the queen event of the entire Olympics.

And finally there is Liechtenstein, which leaves athletics and will participate in mountain biking. Romano Puentener will debut in the Olympic Games and he will do so in cross country. The Principality located in the center of Europe will have less participation than in Tokyo, where five athletes qualified. On this occasion, the hopes of the nation’s nearly 40,000 inhabitants fall on the young 20-year-old cyclist.

When do they compete? On Monday the 29th it will be the turn of the mountain bike, while the 100 meters will have its preliminary round on Saturday, August 3 and the final on Sunday the 4th. In the 800 meters the semifinals will be on August 9.