Kosovo will be represented by nine athletes in four different sports at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, which will take place from July 26 to August 11 in the French capital.

The Kosovo Olympic team is dominated by judo as usual, with five judokas being part of the team, announced the Kosovo Olympic Committee (KOC).

Leading the list are Olympic champions judokas Distria Krasniqi and Nora Gjakova, followed by three other judokas: Laura Fazliu, Akil Gjakova, and Loriana Kuka.

This will be the third consecutive Olympics where Kosovo aims to win gold medals, following Majlinda Kelmendi’s historic debut in Rio 2016 in Brazil, where she became an Olympic champion, and the gold medals won by Distria Krasniqi and Nora Gjakova in Tokyo 2020.

Krasniqi, along with Kelmendi and Nora Gjakova, are the only athletes, both male and female, to have won Olympic gold medals in the history of Kosovar sport.

The other athletes representing Kosovo in Paris are Donjeta Sadiku in boxing, Gresa Bakraqi in athletics, and Hana Beiqi and Adell Saboviq in swimming.

All judokas and Sadiku from boxing secured their participation by meeting the Olympic standards, while the other three athletes received invitations.

Hana Beiqi, a 14-year-old from Prishtina has been preparing for her debut at the Olympics for four years. She told Radio Free Europe a few years ago that she dreamed of participating in the Olympics.

The Summer Olympics are held every four years and are considered the most prestigious competition with numerous individual and team sports worldwide.

Kosovo made its debut in 2016 at the Rio Olympics in Brazil.

/k.s/