Some Athletes to Cheer For

Part 1

At these Olympic Games, there will be some 10,500 participants. 10,500! Now I’m not going to give you detailed background on every participant, but in case you are like “you know what? I feel like supporting Mongolia this year,” I thought it could be fun to pick a random athlete from each delegation to support.

And so, let the games begin:

1. Afghanistan: Yulduz Hashimi — the Afghani flag bearer will be one of three women athletes. She is also joined in the Olympic delegation by her sister Fariba Hashimi.
2. Albania: Zelimkhan Abakarov — Zelimkhan will be competing in wrestling.
3. Algeria: Amina Belkadi — This 31 year old will be competing in judo.
4. American Samoa — Micah Masei — swimmer!
5. Andorra — Mònica Dòria — she is a slalom canoeist which I honestly didn’t know was a sport until right now.
6. Angola — Natália Bernardo — she’s 37 and is still competing in the Olympics for the handball team. I love it.
7. Antigua and Barbuda — Joella Lloyd — she will be running in the 100 meters. Fun fact: she ran for the University of Tennessee.
8. Argentina — Matías Rey — he is the captain of the men’s field hockey squad.
9. Armenia — Arsen Harutyunyan — do I know what freestyle wrestling entails? I do not, but I am looking forward to finding out.
10. Aruba — Shanayah Howell — she is a BMX rider.