18 Olympic participants

Upper Austria’s men and women of the 2024 rings!

Medal candidate Lukas Weißhaidinger

(Bild: Giancarlo Colombo)

The Olympic Games will open in Paris on Friday. Among 10,500 athletes, 18 are from Upper Austria, and we are the largest delegation in the 81-strong ÖOC squad. Among them are hopefuls for precious metals and top places as well as a woman who has already broken a record before the start. 

The athletes have been working towards this moment for years, and now their sporting dream is coming true for so many athletes: on Friday, the Olympic flame will be lit in Paris and the XXXIII Games will begin. With 10,500 athletes, 81 of them from Austria - and 18 from Upper Austria, the largest red-white-red delegation! "We are delighted that Upper Austrians are also among the world's best and that we have such a large delegation," said Governor Thomas Stelzer and Markus Achleitner, Provincial Councillor for Sport, about the eleven male and seven female athletes.

Record for Max-Theurer
Among them are Olympic debutants such as taekwondo ace Marlene Jahl and judoka Samuel Gassner as well as four (!) ASV Linz swimmers and veterans such as Victoria Max-Theurer. The dressage rider is already assured of a record after her successful qualification: with her sixth participation, the 38-year-old catches up with table tennis grande dame Liu Jia - no Austrian has been to the Games more often. After three (bronze) medals in Tokyo 2021, there are also numerous candidates for precious metal or absolute top places this year.

Victoria Max-Theurer and her partner Stefan Lehfellner (r.)

(Bild: GEPA pictures/ Mathias Mandl)

Giant is the greatest hope 
First and foremost the 1.96m tall discus giant Lukas Weißhaidinger, who underlined his ambitions this year with silver at the European Championships after winning precious metal in Tokyo. Other candidates for top places include the reigning European table tennis champion Sofia Polcanova, sailor Lukas Haberl in the Nacra 17 with Tanja Frank, who has also already won a medal. Plus judoka Wachid Borchashvili and event rider Lea Siegl, who finished 15th on her debut as the youngest in the field in 2021. "Make sure you can deliver your best performance," say Stelzer and Achleitner: "We are keeping our fingers crossed for this celebration of sport, peace and cohesion!"

The reigning European champion Sofia Polcanova

(Bild: APA/AFP/Tobias SCHWARZ)

Upper Austria often cheered at the Olympics
An Olympic medal winner from the last Games in 2021 is already one of the big losers before the opening of the 2024 Olympics: Bettina Plank will not be able to compete this year because karate was removed from the Olympic program. In Tokyo, Lukas Weißhaidinger (discus) and Shamil Borchashvili (judo) ensured that Upper Austria had three bronze medals to celebrate. Previously, Upper Austria had come away empty-handed in Rio 2016 and London 2012 (like the whole of Austria). In 2008, Violetta Oblinger-Peters won bronze in the whitewater canoe. A major success in the new millennium dates back to 2000, when Christoph Sieber won gold in windsurfing in Sydney.

Shamil Borchashvili won bronze in 2021, and now his brother Wachid is taking part.

(Bild: GEPA)

Pupils from Bad Leonfelden at the Olympics
Who were Upper Austria's first Olympic champions? Adolf Kainz and Alfons Dorfner, who won the 1000m kayak two-man event in Berlin in 1936. 44 years later, dressage rider Sissy Max-Theurer, who was flown to Moscow by Niki Lauda with her successful horse Mon Cherie, won gold in 1980. Now more heroic deeds are to follow in France, where Upper Austria will be well represented economically as well as by several coaches. Long-standing OÖC partners backaldrin and ERIMA as well as Technogym will be represented at the "Austria House" in Paris, which is celebrating a comeback in Tokyo following the Covid restrictions. Delicacies - also from Gourmetfein - will be served by six students from the Bad Leonfelden tourism school. And these are Upper Austria's sportsmen and sportswomen in Paris:

11 men and 7 women from Upper Austria taking part

• Harald Ambros (eventing)
• Wachid Borchashvili (judo)
• Simon Bucher (swimming)
• Martin Espernberger (swimming)
• Collins Filimon (badminton)
• Samuel Gassner (judo)
• Susanne Gogl-Walli (athletics)
• Felix Großschartner (cycling)
• Lukas Haberl (sailing)
• Marlene Jahl (Taekwondo)
• Alina Kornelli (sailing)
• Lena Kreundl (swimming)
• Stefan Lehfellner (dressage riding)
• Victoria Max-Theurer (dressage)
• Sofia Polcanova (table tennis)
• Bernhard Reitshammer (swimming)
• Lea Siegl (eventing)
• Lukas Weißhaidinger (athletics)