The Tokyo 2020 Games will be a historical reference point for the delegations that send the largest number of athletes, such as China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Canada.
About 431 Chinese athletes will be in Tokyo as part of a 777-member delegation, the largest at the Olympics outside of China. The team features 298 female athletes, more than double the 133 male competitors, and ages range from 14-year-old diver Quan Hongchan, to equestrian rider, 52-year-old Li Chenqiang.
“This is the largest Olympic delegation that China has sent abroad,” said Gao Qidan, deputy director of the General Administration of Sports.
China has already secured 318 places in 224 events for 30 disciplines. At Rio 2016, China sent a record 416 athletes in 26 disciplines and 210 events, then the most at an Olympic Games abroad. The delegation to the 2008 Beijing Olympics was the largest, amounting to 1099 people, including 639 athletes. Among the forecasts of Xinhua, China hopes to win gold medals in table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, weightlifting, shooting and diving.
Japan, as the headquarters, is also included in the Register. The Japanese Olympic Committee announced a record number of 582 athletes. Previously the largest Japanese delegation in 1964, included 355 athletes. In forecasts, the host nation is aiming for 30 gold medals this summer, nearly double its best result of 16 at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and 2004 Athens Games.
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is heading to Tokyo 2020 with its largest sports delegation in the Games, after 11 previous matches that started in 1976 in Montreal. A total of 33 athletes, 31 men and two women, will represent the country at the Games. Of these, 22 make up the U23 soccer team and 11 other contestants participate in nine other sports. The number of sports in which she will compete also exceeded the previous record of a Saudi delegation, which is six at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Team Great Britain is making history with its largest delegation to a Games on foreign soil. It will send 376 players and 22 others in reserve to compete in 26 sports this summer. Furthermore, for the first time at the Summer Olympics, the British team will feature more female athletes than male athletes, with 201 women (53.5%) and 175 men (46.5%).
Israel will send its largest delegation this year: more than 80 athletes who will compete in surfing, judo, track and field, baseball and gymnastics. Among them are well-known names such as runner, Lunah Shamtay, rhythmic gymnast, Linoy Ashram, and judoka, Sagi Muki.
In America, Canada will field a team of 371 athletes, the country’s largest Olympic squad since the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) said the 225 team members will be athletes identifying as women and 146 people identifying themselves as men. . The Canadian team includes 226 Junior Olympians, while 134 competed in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. There are 40 returning Olympic medalists and athletes who transitioned from the Winter Games to the Summer Games.
