Turkmenistan_at_the_2016_Summer_Olympics
Turkmenistan at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Sporting event delegation
Turkmenistan competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics in the post-Soviet era.
The National Olympic Committee of Turkmenistan sent a team of nine athletes, four men and five women, to compete in five different sports at the Games.[2] This was also the youngest delegation in Turkmenistan's Olympic history, with more than half of the team under the age of 25, and many of them were expected to reach their peak in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Eight Turkmen athletes made their debut in Rio de Janeiro, with hammer thrower Amanmurad Hommadov headed to his second Games as the oldest and most experienced competitor (aged 29). Meanwhile, breaststroke swimmer Darya Semyonova established history for the Turkmens as the youngest ever Olympian (aged 14), beating the record previously held by Yelena Rojkova twelve years earlier in Athens. Other notable athletes featured world's top-ranked judoka Gulbadam Babamuratova in the women's 52 kg category, and backstroke swimmer Merdan Ataýew, the tallest of the team (standing at 6 ft 5 in), who was selected to become Turkmenistan's flag bearer in the opening ceremony.[3]
Turkmenistan, however, had to wait five more years for its first medal.
