MADRID, 7 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish teams are starting a key year in 2024 for many due to their desire to participate in the most important sporting event, that of the Olympic and Paralympic Games that will be held next summer in Paris and where Spain wants to once again demonstrate that it is a power. especially Olympic.
At the moment, with less than seven months to go until the event, only men's soccer, women's water polo and men's wheelchair basketball already have their ticket guaranteed and can be taken with more 'calm' this year, while the rest must certify it. in the coming months, some with some margin, others already with the only asset of a Pre-Olympic and, in several cases, with the help of playing at home. If there were a full Olympic Games, Spain would go to Paris with a record of eleven qualified, two more than in Tokyo where it was the European country with the greatest representation.
The teams that will no longer be able to be in Paris will be, at the Olympic level, the two volleyball teams and the women's 7-a-side rugby team, or the 5-a-side soccer teams for the blind, goalball, wheelchair rugby and sitting volleyball, at the Olympic level. paralympic. In Tokyo 2020, Spain attended in full force in basketball, handball, water polo and field hockey, and men's soccer, while in the Paralympic Games only the two chair basketball teams were present, the women's team for the first time in its history after having played as host in Barcelona 1992.
And the activity begins soon for these teams since this Thursday the European Men's Water Polo starts in Dubrovnik (Croatia) where the Spanish team has its first opportunity to seal the Olympic passport that it could not achieve in the last World Cup, which the female. Spain must become European champion for the first time to achieve this and if not, it could also depend on the results of Hungary and Greece, already qualified, or even France, the Olympic host. If he does not succeed, he would still have the World Championship next month in Doha where four places will be at stake.
Men's handball also has two options. Her bronze in the 2023 World Cup has already assured her at least a Pre-Olympic in March, which appears relatively affordable and which she will avoid if she wins gold in the European Championship that begins in Germany next week or if she is runner-up with a title for Denmark or France or bronze if they play the final.
TORREVIEJA, VALENCIA AND CÁDIZ WANT TO PUT THEIR 'GRAIN OF SAND'
The 'Guerreras', for their part, will have to go through a key Pre-Olympic, with good chances of being in their fifth consecutive Games since they will be hosts in Torrevieja (Alicante) in April (11-14) of a tournament where two pass and that It will be complex because they will face the powerful Netherlands and the Czech Republic, who were their 'executioners' in the last World Cup, and Argentina, the theoretically easier rival.
Also in January, the two field hockey teams will play, without a net, their presence in Paris, also with the advantage of playing as hosts, in Valencia, where six places will be distributed, three women's and three men's, between the 13th and the January 21st. There will be 16 national teams, eight women's and eight men's, divided into two groups, of which the first two will advance to the semifinals. Only the three best will make it to the French capital.
Spanish basketball, a European power, will have to go through two Pre-Olympics to try to repeat double presence at the Olympic event. The first to try, from February 8 to 11, will be the women's team, current European runners-up, who will seek their luck in Sopron (Hungary) in a complicated group alongside the host, Japan, silver in Tokyo 2020, and Canada , although the margin is somewhat wide because three pass.
The team led by Sergio Scariolo will not have it easy either, although in its case it will have the support of the public at La Fuente de San Luis in Valencia in a Pre-Olympic also located a few days before the Games, between July 2 and 7, already with the finished season. Lebanon, Angola, Finland, Poland and the Bahamas will be their rivals in a tournament that only gives a passport to the French capital to the winner and with Poles and Bahamians as the biggest threats.
As for football, the men's team will be able to defend or improve their silver from three years ago in Tokyo, while the women's team could break down a new barrier if they qualify for Paris 2024. After making history last summer with the World Cup, the current World Cup champion world must win next February 23 at the Nuevo Mirandilla in Cádiz in the Netherlands to enjoy the Olympic dream for the first time. If she loses, she will need a victory for France in the other semifinal of the Nations League to play against Germany in La Cartuja in Seville on the 28th of the same month.
THE BSR WOMEN'S TEAM WILL PLAY IT IN JAPAN
Finally, the last national team with a chance to be in the Olympic Games next summer is the men's 7-a-side rugby team. After achieving the advantage of a Pre-Olympic with their bronze at the European Games in Krakow (Poland), the mission of being In Paris it will be extremely complicated with a tournament that only gives one ticket.
On the other hand, facing the Paralympic Games, with the men's chair basketball team, historic silver in Rio 2016, already classified after its continental silver last summer, the only other Spanish option is the women's team in this sport, who three years ago in Tokyo played this event for the first time on his own merits.
Now, the team led by Franck Belen, bronze in the last European Championship that gave two tickets, will have to overcome a tough repechage tournament between April 17 and 20 in the Japanese town of Osaka since the participation in Paris of twelve to only eight selections.