President Hipolito Mejia bid the Dominican delegation to the Athens Olympics the best of success to from the Presidential Palace yesterday. The Dominican Republic is sending 40 athletes as well as 18 delegates and coaches, comprising the largest Dominican Olympic team ever. The DR has been participating in Olympic competition since the 1964 Tokyo Games. The nation?s hopes for a first-time gold medal are being placed on the shoulders of 400-meter hurdler, Felix ?Super? Sanchez. While Sanchez trains in the US, he chooses to compete for his native DR, to the great delight of his local fan base. The best the country has done in the past has been to score a bronze in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics by boxer Pedro Julio Nolasco. Other Dominican contenders for medals in the August Games are the Dominican national table-tennis players, Luis Ju and Nieves Xue, who took gold medals in the Pan Am Games held in Santo Domingo last year. Ju and Xue also train abroad.
The DR will dispatch athletes to compete in track and field, weight lifting, boxing, judo, table tennis, wrestling, tae kwon do, skeet shooting and women?s volleyball. The upcoming Olympic Games will take place in Athens, Greece from 13-29 August.