Venezuela At The 2016 Summer Olympics

It was the nation's eighteenth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.

Venezuela at the 2016 Summer Olympics
IOC code	VEN
NOC	Venezuelan Olympic Committee
Website	www.covoficial.com.ve (in Spanish)
in Rio de Janeiro
Competitors	87 in 20 sports
Flag bearer	Rubén Limardo
Medals Ranked 65th	Gold 0 Silver 2 Bronze 1 Total 3
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024

The Venezuelan Olympic Committee (Spanish: Comité Olímpico Venezolano, COV) fielded a team of 87 athletes, 62 men and 25 women, to compete in twenty sports at the Games. It was the nation's second-largest delegation sent to the Olympics, falling short of the record set in Beijing 2008 (108) by nearly twenty percent. Men's basketball was the only team-based sport in which Venezuela qualified for the Games, returning to the Olympic basketball for the first time since 1992. Venezuela also made its debut in golf (new to the 2016 Games) and women's beach volleyball, as well as its return to equestrian, rowing, and taekwondo events after eight years.

The Venezuelan roster featured 28 returning Olympians, with fencers Silvio Fernández and Alejandra Benítez, along with multiple-stroke swimmer Albert Subirats, headed to their fourth Games as the most experienced competitors of the team. Other notable Venezuelan athletes included artistic gymnast Jessica López, amateur welterweight boxer and Pan American Games champion Gabriel Maestre, 2015 world BMX champion Stefany Hernández, and fencing brothers Francisco and Rubén Limardo, who became the nation's first gold medalist since 1968 at the previous Games. Looking to defend his men's épée title in Rio de Janeiro, the elder Limardo was selected by the public through a nationwide online vote to carry the Venezuelan flag at the opening ceremony, the first male from his country to do so since 2004.

Unlike the previous Games, Venezuela failed to produce another gold-medal winning feat in Rio de Janeiro, but left instead with three medals (one silver and two bronze), which matched its overall tally from the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. These medals were awarded to the following athletes for the first time in their respective sporting events: a silver to triple jumper Yulimar Rojas, and a bronze each to Hernández and flyweight boxer Yoel Finol. Finol would later be upgraded from bronze to silver after Russian boxer Misha Aloyan was disqualified

One Venezuelan archer qualified for the men's individual recurve by obtaining one of the eight Olympic places available from the 2015 World Archery Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. Meanwhile, another Venezuelan archer has been added to the squad by securing one of three available Olympic spots in the women's individual recurve at the Pan American Qualification Tournament in Medellín, Colombia.

Athlete	Event	Ranking round		Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final / BM
		Score	Seed	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Elías Malavé	Men's individual	651	46	Wang Dp (CHN) W 6–2	Worth (AUS) L 4–6	did not advance
Leidys Brito	Women's individual	614	44	Unruh (GER) L 4–6	did not advance

Venezuelan athletes have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event):

Track & road events
Men

Women

Field events

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Final
		Distance	Position	Distance	Position
Ahymara Espinoza	Women's shot put	17.27	19	did not advance
Robeilys Peinado	Women's pole vault	DNS		did not advance
Rosa Rodríguez	Women's hammer throw	72.41	3 Q	69.26	10
Yulimar Rojas	Triple jump	14.21	7 Q	14.98

Men's tournament

Venezuela men's basketball team qualified for the Olympics by attaining a top two finish towards the final match of the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship in Mexico.

Team roster

The following is the Venezuela roster for the men's basketball tournament of the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Venezuela men's national basketball team – 2016 Summer Olympics roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr. C 0 Gregory Echenique 25 – (1990-11-23)23 November 1990 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) Guaros de Lara   G/F 2 Dwight Lewis 28 – (1987-10-07)7 October 1987 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) Trotamundos de Carabobo   C 4 Miguel Marriaga 32 – (1984-06-06)6 June 1984 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) Toros de Aragua   PG 5 Gregory Vargas 30 – (1986-02-18)18 February 1986 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Maccabi Haifa   SG 6 John Cox 35 – (1981-06-07)7 June 1981 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) Bucaneros de La Guaira   PG 8 David Cubillán 29 – (1987-07-27)27 July 1987 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) Trotamundos de Carabobo   G/F 10 José Vargas (C) 34 – (1982-01-23)23 January 1982 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) Marinos de Anzoátegui   PF 14 Miguel Ruiz 25 – (1990-12-20)20 December 1990 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) Trotamundos de Carabobo   F/C 15 Windi Graterol 29 – (1986-09-10)10 September 1986 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) Guaros de Lara   PG 19 Heissler Guillént 29 – (1986-12-17)17 December 1986 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) Guaros de Lara   F 23 Anthony Pérez 22 – (1993-09-29)29 September 1993 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) Ole Miss Rebels   PF 43 Néstor Colmenares 28 – (1987-09-05)5 September 1987 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Guaros de Lara	Head coach   Néstor García Assistant coach(es)   Nelson Solórzano   Daniel Seoane Legend (C) Team captain Club – describes last club before the tournament Age – describes age on 6 August 2016

Group play

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States	5	5	0	524	407	+117	10	Quarterfinals
2	Australia	5	4	1	444	368	+76	9
3	France	5	3	2	423	378	+45	8
4	Serbia	5	2	3	426	387	+39	7
5	Venezuela	5	1	4	315	444	−129	6
6	China	5	0	5	318	466	−148	5

6 August 2016 (2016-08-06) 22:30

Boxscore

Venezuela	62–86	Serbia
Scoring by quarter: 14–18, 9–26, 18–24, 21–18
Pts: Echenique 12 Rebs: Colmenares 6 Asts: Vargas 5		Pts: Bogdanović 19 Rebs: Štimac 9 Asts: Nedović 4

Carioca Arena 1, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 5,063 Referees: Christos Christodoulou (GRE), Duan Zhu (CHN), Roberto Vázquez (PUR)

8 August 2016 (2016-08-08) 19:00

Boxscore

United States	113–69	Venezuela
Scoring by quarter: 18–18, 30–8, 27–25, 38–18
Pts: George 20 Rebs: Jordan 9 Asts: Lowry 9		Pts: Cox 19 Rebs: Echenique 7 Asts: Vargas 5

Carioca Arena 1, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 10,572 Referees: Eddie Viator (FRA), Damir Javor (SLO), Scott Beker (AUS)

10 August 2016 (2016-08-10) 22:30

Boxscore

Venezuela	72–68	China
Scoring by quarter: 25–13, 13–22, 13–15, 21–18
Pts: Colmenares 16 Rebs: Colmenares 5 Asts: Vargas 5		Pts: Guo 17 Rebs: Yi 10 Asts: Guo, Zhou 3

Carioca Arena 1, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 6,223 Referees: Cristiano Maranho (BRA), Sreten Radović (CRO), Guilherme Locatelli (BRA)

12 August 2016 (2016-08-12) 22:30

Boxscore

France	96–56	Venezuela
Scoring by quarter: 23–18, 19–12, 24–17, 30–9
Pts: Lauvergne 17 Rebs: Kahudi 12 Asts: Heurtel 8		Pts: Echenique 12 Rebs: Vargas 7 Asts: Cox 4

Carioca Arena 1, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 7,312 Referees: Cristiano Maranho (BRA), Robert Lottermoser (GER), Ferdinand Pascual (PHI)

14 August 2016 (2016-08-14) 19:00

Boxscore

Australia	81–56	Venezuela
Scoring by quarter: 16–6, 16–19, 21–18, 28–13
Pts: Goulding 22 Rebs: Broekhoff 8 Asts: Martin 4		Pts: Perez 12 Rebs: Vargas, Ruiz 4 Asts: Vargas 7

Carioca Arena 1, Rio de Janeiro Attendance: 9,459 Referees: Stephen Seibel (CAN), Sreten Radović (CRO), Carlos Peruga (ESP)

Venezuela has entered seven boxers to compete in each of the following weight classes into the Olympic boxing tournament. Luis Angel Cabrera, Luis Arcon, Albert Ramirez, and 2012 Olympian Gabriel Maestre had claimed their Olympic spots at the 2016 American Qualification Tournament in Buenos Aires. Meanwhile, Yoel Finol Rivas, Victor Rodríguez, Endry José Pinto, and Edgar Muñoz secured additional places on the Venezuelan roster at the 2016 APB and WSB Olympic Qualifier in Vargas.

Athlete	Event	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Yoel Finol Rivas	Men's flyweight	de los Santos (DOM) W 3–0	Ali (GBR) W 3–0	Flissi (ALG) W 3–0	Zoirov (UZB) L 0–3	Did not advance
Víctor Rodríguez	Men's bantamweight	Ham S-m (KOR) L 1–2	did not advance
Luis Ángel Cabrera	Men's lightweight	Narimatsu (JPN) L 1–2	did not advance
Luis Arcón	Men's light welterweight	Bachkov (ARM) L 1–2	did not advance
Gabriel Maestre	Men's welterweight	Marutjan (GER) W 2–1	Mangiacapre (ITA) W WO	Yeleussinov (KAZ) L 0–3	did not advance
Endry José Pinto	Men's middleweight	Delgado (ECU) L 0–3	did not advance
Albert Ramírez	Men's light heavyweight	Khamukov (RUS) W 2–1	Benchabla (ALG) L 1–2	did not advance
Edgar Muñoz	Men's super heavyweight	Jalolov (UZB) L TKO	did not advance

Road

Venezuelan riders qualified for the following quota places in the men's Olympic road race by virtue of their top 5 national ranking in the 2015 UCI America Tour (for men), and top 22 in the 2016 UCI World Ranking (for women). One additional spot was awarded to the Venezuela cyclist in the women's road race, by virtue of a top national finish, not yet qualified, at the 2016 Pan American Championships.

Track

Following the completion of the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, Venezuelan riders have accumulated spots in the men's team sprint and women's omnium. As a result of their place in the men's team sprint, Venezuela has won the right to enter two riders in both men's sprint and men's keirin.

Sprint

Team sprint

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Semifinals		Final
		Time Speed (km/h)	Rank	Opposition Time Speed (km/h)	Rank	Opposition Time Speed (km/h)	Rank
Hersony Canelón César Marcano Ángel Pulgar	Men's team sprint	44.263 60.999	8 Q	Great Britain (GBR) L 44.486 60.693	8	did not advance

Keirin

Omnium

BMX

Venezuelan riders qualified for one men's and one women's quota place for BMX at the Olympics, as a result of the nation's top three placement for men, not yet qualified, at the 2016 UCI BMX World Championships, and seventh-place finish for women in the UCI Olympic Ranking List of May 31, 2016. London 2012 Olympian Stefany Hernández and rookie Jefferson Milano were named to the Olympic roster on June 1, 2016.

Athlete	Event	Seeding		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Result	Rank	Points	Rank	Points	Rank	Result	Rank
Jefferson Milano	Men's BMX	35.945	23	12	3 Q	24	8	did not advance
Stefany Hernández	Women's BMX	35.202	4	—		11	3 Q	34.755

Venezuelan divers qualified for two individual spots at the Olympics by virtue of a top 18 finish respectively at the 2016 FINA World Cup series.

Venezuela has entered two jumping riders into the Olympic equestrian competition by virtue of a top six individual finish at the 2015 Pan American Games.

Jumping

Venezuelan fencers have qualified a full squad each in the men's team épée by virtue of being the highest ranking team from America outside the world's top four in the FIE Olympic Team Rankings. Aiming to appear at fourth Olympics, Alejandra Benítez had claimed the spot on the Venezuelan team in the women's sabre as one of the two highest-ranked fencers coming from the America zone in the FIE Adjusted Official Rankings. Isis Giménez and 2011 Pan American Games bronze medalist Antonio Leal rounded out the Venezuelan fencing roster by finishing among the top two in the men's and women's foil, respectively, at the Pan American Zonal Qualifier in San José, Costa Rica.

Men

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Final / BM
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Silvio Fernández	Épée	Jung J-s (KOR) L 8–15	did not advance
Francisco Limardo		Ferreira (BRA) W 15–9	Jérent (FRA) W 15–14	Novosjolov (EST) L 12–15	did not advance
Rubén Limardo		Bye	Fayez (EGY) L 5–15	did not advance
Silvio Fernández Francisco Limardo Rubén Limardo Kelvin Cañas*	Team épée	—		Brazil (BRA) W 45–25	France (FRA) L 29–45	Classification semifinal   South Korea (KOR) L 40–45	7th place final   Russia (RUS) L 30–36	8
Antonio Leal	Foil	van Haaster (CAN) L 7–15	did not advance

Women

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Final / BM
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Isis Giménez	Foil	Bye	Jeon H-s (KOR) L 8–10	did not advance
Alejandra Benítez	Sabre	Hafez (EGY) W 15–11	Márton (HUN) L 14–15	did not advance

Venezuela has entered one golfer into the Olympic tournament. Jhonattan Vegas (world no. 240) qualified directly among the top 60 players for the men's event based on the IGF World Rankings as of July 11, 2016.

Artistic

Venezuela has entered one artistic gymnast for the first time into the Olympic competition. Jessica López confirmed her third straight Olympic appearance by securing a spot in the women's apparatus and all-around events at the Olympic Test Event in Rio de Janeiro.

Women

Venezuela has qualified one judoka for the women's middleweight category (70 kg) at the Games. Elvismar Rodríguez earned a continental quota spot from the Pan American region, as the highest-ranked Venezuelan judoka outside of direct qualifying position in the IJF World Ranking List of May 30, 2016.

Athlete	Event	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Elvismar Rodríguez	Women's −70 kg	Moreira (ANG) L 000–100	did not advance

Venezuela has qualified one boat in the men's single sculls for the Games at the 2016 Latin American Continental Qualification Regatta in Valparaiso, Chile.

Qualification Legend: FA=Final A (medal); FB=Final B (non-medal); FC=Final C (non-medal); FD=Final D (non-medal); FE=Final E (non-medal); FF=Final F (non-medal); SA/B=Semifinals A/B; SC/D=Semifinals C/D; SE/F=Semifinals E/F; QF=Quarterfinals; R=Repechage

Venezuelan sailors have qualified one boat in each of the following classes through the individual fleet World Championships, and South American qualifying regattas.

M = Medal race; EL = Eliminated – did not advance into the medal race

Venezuela has qualified one shooter to compete in the men's rifle events by virtue of his best finish at the 2015 Pan American Games, as long as he obtained a minimum qualifying score (MQS) by March 31, 2016.

Qualification Legend: Q = Qualify for the next round; q = Qualify for the bronze medal (shotgun)

Venezuelan swimmers have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following events (up to a maximum of 2 swimmers in each event at the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT), and potentially 1 at the Olympic Selection Time (OST)):

Venezuela has entered one athlete into the table tennis competition at the Games. Gremlins Arvelo secured the Olympic spot in the women's singles by virtue of her top six finish at the 2016 Latin American Qualification Tournament in Santiago, Chile.

Athlete	Event	Preliminary	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Gremlis Arvelo	Women's singles	Bye	Zhang (USA) L 0–4	did not advance

Venezuela entered one athlete into the taekwondo competition at the Olympics. Edgar Contreras secured a spot in the men's lightweight category (68 kg) by virtue of his top two finish at the 2016 Pan American Qualification Tournament in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Athlete	Event	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Edgar Contreras	Men's −68 kg	Denisenko (RUS) L 2–12	did not advance		Tazegül (TUR) W 5–4 SUD	González (ESP) L 3–4	5

Beach

Venezuela women's beach volleyball team qualified directly for the Olympics by winning the final match over Argentina at the 2016 CSV Continental Cup in Rosario.

Athlete	Event	Preliminary round	Standing	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final / BM
		Opposition Score		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Norisbeth Agudo Olaya Pérez	Women's	Pool F   Meppelink – van Iersel (NED) L 0 – 2 (17–21, 11–21)   Bawden – Clancy (AUS) L 0 – 2 (21–9, 21–14)   Alfaro – Charles (CRC) W 2 – 0 (21–16, 21–19) Lucky Losers   Borger – Büthe (GER) L 0 – 2 (13–21, 8–21)	3	did not advance

Venezuelan weightlifters have qualified three women's quota places for the Rio Olympics based on their combined team standing by points at the 2014 and 2015 IWF World Championships. Meanwhile, a single men's Olympic spot was added to the Venezuelan roster by virtue of his top 15 individual finish, among those who had not secured any quota places through the World or Pan American Championships, in the IWF World Rankings as of June 20, 2016. The place was awarded to Jesús López in the men's featherweight division (62 kg).

Venezuela has qualified a total of nine wrestlers for each of the following weight classes into the Olympic competition. Majority of Olympic berths were awarded to Venezuelan wrestlers, who progressed to the top two finals at the 2016 Pan American Qualification Tournament. Meanwhile, two further wrestlers had claimed the remaining Olympic slots to round out the Venezuelan roster at the initial meet of the World Qualification Tournament in Ulaanbaatar.

Men's freestyle

Athlete	Event	Qualification	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Pedro Ceballos	−86 kg	Bye	Zaghloul (EGY) W 3–0 PO	Sadulaev (RUS) L 0–3 PO	Did not advance	Bye	Veréb (HUN) W 3–1 PP	Sharifov (AZE) L 1–3 PP	5
José Daniel Díaz	−97 kg	Bye	Ibragimov (KAZ) L 0–4 ST	did not advance					18

Men's Greco-Roman

Athlete	Event	Qualification	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Raiber Rodríguez	−59 kg	Bye	Bayramov (AZE) L 0–4 ST	did not advance					18
Wuileixis Rivas	−66 kg	Bye	Norouzi (IRI) L 1–3 PP	did not advance					14
Luillys Pérez	−98 kg	Bye	Rezaei (IRI) L 0–4 ST	did not advance					17
Erwin Caraballo	−130 kg	Bye	Kayaalp (TUR) L 0–4 ST	did not advance		Bye	Shariati (AZE) L 0–4 ST	Did not advance	19

Women's freestyle

Athlete	Event	Qualification	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Betzabeth Argüello	−53 kg	Bye	Essombe (CMR) W 5–0 VT	Prevolaraki (GRE) W 3–1 PP	Yoshida (JPN) L 0–3 PO	Bye		Synyshyn (AZE) L 1–3 PP	5
María Acosta	−69 kg	Bye	Mostafa (EGY) L 1–3 PP	did not advance					17
Jaramit Weffer	−75 kg	Bye	Ali (CMR) L 0–3 PO	did not advance					17

• Venezuela at the 2015 Pan American Games
• Venezuela at the 2016 Summer Paralympics