The first red participation at the Olympics was in 1936, in Berlin. After being represented along the following editions of the Olympic Games, the Club has decided to go on with the creation of the Olympic Benfica project. It was with this designation that SL Benfica started to consolidate its bet on the Olympic athletes.
In Beijing 2008, the Club was represented by five athletes, and with 11 in London 2012. The year of 2016 was the one which has registered the biggest participation, 22 Benfica’s athletes competing in the Portuguese Olympic missions. The year of 2016 was the one which has registered the biggest participation of athletes in the Portuguese Olympic missions.
The Olympics in Rio de Janeiro were, invariably, marked by the winning of the bronze medal by the judoka Telma Monteiro (-57kg), in her 4th participation at the most important sporting events of the world, the third one integrated in Olympic Benfica.
With two participations, Vanessa Fernandes (triathlon), silver medal in 2008, João Silva (triathlon), Teresa Portela (canoeing), Dulce Félix, Sérgio Vieira and Pedro Isidro, all from athletics, are the names with the most experience in Olympic games.
In a dynamic list, according to the pre-qualifications results, in this case for Tokyo 2020, mention to the judokas Nuno Saraiva and for the triathletes João Pereira and Miguel Arraiolos.
They all have participated in the 2016’ edition, just like the canoeist João Ribeiro and the taekwondo athlete Rui Bragança – who has established a partnership with the Club after those Olympic Games. There are also Joana Vasconcelos (Canoeing) and Marta Pen, Marcos Chuva, Tsanko Arnaudov, Francisco Belo, Ricardo Ribas and Miguel Carvalho (Athletics). Diana Durães, Miguel Nascimento, Victoria Kaminskaya, Luiz Pereira and Cláudia Borges are names to retain, in terms of the SL Benfica’s swimming.
