The island of Seychelles, Africa's smallest country, will reportedly send at least three athletes to this summer's Paris Olympics. felicity passon Queue up at one of two swimming spots.
The Secretary-General of the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (SOCGA) has confirmed that Seychelles will send one male swimmer and one female swimmer to Paris, saying it will prioritize athletes receiving Olympic scholarships.Passon is one of five athletes from Seychelles who have earned Olympic scholarships, along with sprinters. ned azemir and Shari Dodin,boxer Shane Bonifaceand sailors Dean Mattiot.
World Aquatics earlier this month changed its universality policy for the Paris Olympics, removing the requirement for athletes to have competed in the 2023 or 2024 World Aquatics Championships. Other changes include a “duty” to send athletes with the highest scores in the World Aquatics points table, which is aimed at alleviating frequent allegations of domestic corruption in universal selection.
This will be the second Olympics for the 24-year-old Passon, who placed 38th in the 100m backstroke (1:04.66) and 26th in the 200m backstroke (2:16.18) at the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games. Become. She served as flag bearer for Seychelles several years ago.
Passon competed in his fifth world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, last summer, finishing 50th in the 100 back (1:05.35) and 41st in the 100 butterfly (1:03.15). Her time was about five seconds below the Olympic qualification standard.
Passon recently completed his college career at San Jose State last year after stops at SMU (2017-19) and Arizona (2021-22). Back in 2019, when she was asked about her goals in swimming, she replied that “her main goal” was the Paris Olympics. That year, she became the first Seychelles swimmer to win the African title at the 2019 African Games.
she can join again simon backman, a 25-year-old swimmer who participated in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics with Passon. Backman competed in two events at the 2024 World Championships in February, where she placed 34th in the 200 IM (2:07.85) and 31st in the 200 fly (2:07.85). 03.31). At last year's World Championships in Fukuoka, she placed 41st in the 200 IM (2:08.50) and 31st in the 200 fly (2:03.57).
Seychelles sent a total of five athletes to the last Tokyo Olympics: Passon, Bachman, Azemia, and Sailor. Rodney Govindenand judoka nanteina finesse. Seychelles, which now has a population of about 100,000, first began participating in the Olympic Games in 1980.
Of the 852 Olympic athlete spots, universal athletes continue to occupy a higher place in the Olympic priority hierarchy than 'B' standard swimmers. This is a decrease of 26 places compared to Tokyo.
The deadline for universal applications is June 24th.
