Nauru competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. The country's participation in Brazil was its sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics since its debut at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. Nauru's delegation included two participants: Ovini Uera, a judoka in the men's middleweight judo category; and

Elson Brechtefeld Elson Viney-Bartel Brechtefeld (born 2 March 1994) is a Nauruan weightlifter who won a bronze medal in the 69 kg category at the 2013 Pacific Mini Games. He moved down to the 62 kg division in the following year, placing 13th at the 2014 Commonw ...

in the men's 56 kg weightlifting competition. Uera qualified as Nauru's top-ranked judoka, in the IJF World Ranking List through a quota slot from the Oceania Judo Union. Brechtefeld qualified by grant from the

International Weightlifting Federation The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), headquartered in Lausanne, is the international governing body for the sport of Olympic weightlifting. The IWF was founded in 1905, and has 192 Member Federations. The IWF President is Mohammed H ...

of an unused quota place. Uera was eliminated by

Varlam Liparteliani Varlam Liparteliani (; born 27 February 1989) is a Georgian judoka. He has won silver at Olympic and World level. Career He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the -90 kg event and lost in the second round to Mark Anthony. At the Europ ...

in the round of 16 and Brechtefeld finished 15th in his event.

Background

Nauru participated in six Summer Olympic Games between its debut in the

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, United States and the 2016 Summer Olympics in

, Brazil. The country sent its largest delegation to a Summer Games when three athletes took part in both the 1996 and 2004 Olympics. Nauru has yet to win its first Olympic medal. The Nauru National Olympic Committee selected two athletes, having chosen for the second successive time to compete only in

judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

and

weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; promo ...

. This was Nauru's second-largest team sent to the Olympics, tying with

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in Sydney and

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London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

for this number of athletes. The Nauruan athletes chosen were

ka Ovini Uera in the men's 90 kg category, and weightlifter and 2010 Youth Olympian

(men's 56 kg). Brechtefeld was the

flag bearer A standard-bearer, also known as a flag-bearer is a person (soldier or civilian) who bears an emblem known as a standard or military colours, i.e. either a type of flag or an inflexible but mobile image, which is used (and often honoured) as a f ...

for the opening ceremony and Uera for the

closing ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

Judo

Nauru qualified one

ka for the men's middleweight category (90 kg) at the Games. Ovini Uera earned the continental quota spot from the Oceania region, as Nauru's top-ranked judoka in the IJF World Ranking List of 30 May 2016. Uera said in an interview that he started judo in 2012 from his need to learn grapples in

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

. He said he "immediately fell in love with the sport". Uera produced the nation's best result with an opening-round triumph over Belize's Renick James, before falling short in his next match to eventual silver medal winner

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Weightlifting

Nauru received an unused quota place from the IWF to send a male weightlifter to the Olympics, the nation's sixth consecutive participation. Nauru has been relatively notable for its weightlifting, as one of its participants

Marcus Stephen Marcus Ajemada Stephen (born 1 October 1969) is a Nauruan politician and former sportsperson who previously was a member of the Cabinet of Nauru, and who served as President of Nauru from December 2007 to November 2011. The son of Nauruan par ...

served as president of the country after his retirement from the sport. The country has previously won a medal at every edition of the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

it has contested. Brechtefeld successfully cleared his first and second snatch attempts of and , but scratched his final attempt of . For the clean and jerk section, he completed his first attempt of . After failing his second attempt of , he succeeded in his final attempt of clearing the weight, ending up with a total score of 223 and ranking 15th and last of the competitors who achieved a total.

References

External links

* * {{Country at games navbox, Nauru, Summer Olympics Olympics Nations at the 2016 Summer Olympics

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