Four Armenian athletes- two boxers and two weightlifters – will be competing for medals on August 10 during the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the National Olympic Committee of Armenia (NOCA) said on Wednesday.
The boxers Aram Avagyan and Hovhannes Bachkov will face Arashi Morisaki of Japan and Luis Martin Arkona of Venezuela respectively.
Then weightlifter Nazik Avdalian, world champion in 2009 and European champion in 2008 and 2016, and weightlifter Andranik Karapetian, the acting European champion, will enter the fight.
Thirty-three Armenian athletes have qualified for the 31st Summer Olympic Games, the highest ever number representing Armenia.
From the U.S. Olympics team, Nareg Gurgerian will compete in the finals on August 11 with his partner, Anders Weiss, coming in 10th place in the semifinals on August 10 in the men’s Coxless Pair rowing competition.
Adam Krikorian, the U.S. women’s water polo coach, saw victory when his team won 11-4 over Spain. He had just returned to Rio de Janeiro after a grieving family visit when his brother, Blake Krikorian, a Silicon Valley businessman, died on August 3 of natural causes.
Armenia has won twelve Olympic medals since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, including one gold medal and two silver medals. The gold medal was won by wrestler Armen Nazarian in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
The first ethnic Armenian athlete winning Olympic gold was gymnast Hrant Shahinian, as a member of the USSR team in 1952 in Helsinki, winning two gold medals and two silver medals.
