Brazil sets base for Paris-2024, and COB president plans more medals

The shortest Olympic cycle in history will be, for the COB (Olympic Committee of Brazil), one of the most popular. The interval between Tokyo-2020 (edition held in 2021) and Paris-2024 will be an unprecedented three years. The shorter distance makes competition more fierce with European countries for training venues.

The committee has already defined that its support base for the Olympic Village will be in Saint Ouen, in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of the French capital. She will be in 2024 what Chuo in Japan was in 2021.

“I’m going there in June to sign an agreement with the city and make a visit. It’s about a kilometer from the Olympic Village, and the idea is that it’s the central base. An exclusive service for Brazilians”, says the president of the COB, Paulo Wanderley.

It won’t be the only one. It is decided that Marseille will be the base for the sail. Brazil will also have other locations outside France because of the ease of travel and short distances.

“Portugal is always on our radar because it has proven to be a [bom] training center. Confederations such as triathlon and judo do a lot of training there. So Portugal will certainly be a base”, he adds.

The concern and the rush are to circumvent the interest of other countries, especially Europeans, which, in theory, find it easier to find places of preparation. But the logistics will be a lot smoother for Paris than it was for Tokyo.

“Japan had a crazy time zone, the distance too. In France, it will be easier, but more competitive. The Europeans are very close to each other, they are better friends, they get things done more easily and they know the terrain more. many modalities that have the habit of training in Europe. This is a facilitator”, he evaluates.

In the presidency of the COB since October 2017, the judoka, coach and president of the Brazilian Judo Confederation likes to define his period in the sport as someone “who acquired the bad habit of always winning” because of the Olympic medals in the modality. He doesn’t want to make projections of what the Brazilian result in Paris might be. He says that in 2023 it will be possible to have a clearer scenario.

Admittedly, he expects more podiums than in Tokyo. The objective that is implied, although not stated, is to finish in the top ten. In Japan, Brazil ranked 12th, with the highest number of medals in its history. There were seven gold, six silver and eight bronze.

Wanderley says that the COB has a study with the projection of where it is possible to get. But you don’t want to reveal it.

“We won’t be 20th, but we won’t be fifth in this short space of time either. But we have a study, yes. We’re in that cake there from the eighth to the 15th. I don’t intend to go down a little bit. I just want to go up a little. They say that sometimes it’s better to walk backwards to get a boost, but it’s better not. It’s going to slip, isn’t it?”

Paulo Wanderley has been president of the COB since the departure of Carlos Arthur Nuzman, almost four and a half years ago. The leader left office because of the investigation of Operation Unfair Play, by the Federal Police, which investigated the purchase of votes to choose Rio de Janeiro as the host of the 2016 Olympics and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The successor took over as deputy and was elected to a new term in January 2021. He promised to change the committee’s image, tarnished by corruption allegations. He believes he has made it. At the same time, he believes his mission is to make the committee better known even outside of Olympic periods.

“I’m not going to do big events. They’ve all been done. It’s very difficult to have them again in less than 20 years. I’m going to sell the COB product, which will be known to Brazilians much more than it was before, and not only for the Olympic Games. I want it to be recognized for its credibility and responsibility towards the country. My goal is not to leave problems [para o sucessor]. Leave nothing behind,” she says.

But if it can be admired for the Olympic results too, even better. Even if he admits it can be a frustrating process, with unexpected joys and sorrows.

“There are many variables that were not foreseen and happen [nas Olimpíadas]. the question of [resultado ruim] volleyball, for example. Everyone has an expectation with volleyball because it is a sport in which we are used to winning. And we also have this culture that only the first one counts. But not quite. Take it by our own example. We were 12th, and how many countries were there [em Tóquio-2020]? There were 206. For me, it’s a very positive index.”