Colombia’s president congratulated the country’s 104 athletes competing in the London Olympic Games Friday.
“You are the hope of Colombia,” President Juan Manuel Santos said in a phone call to a dozen athletes gathered at the Colombian ambassador’s house in London. “We wish you all the best. We know you’re going to give it your all and we’ll be behind you, thrilled at the thought that you’ll put Colombia in its rightful place.”
Colombia’s rightful place, Santos went on to say, was as a “disciplined, decent country that has progressed socially, politically, and economically.”
“And now we have the chance to show that we’ve progressed in sports, too,” he added.
Since Colombia first entered in the Olympic Games in 1932, it has won 11 medals in six different sporting events. Maria Urrutia, now a politician, raked in the country’s only gold medal in the weightlifting competition in 2000.
The opening ceremony for the London summer olympics will begin at 2PM Colombian time.