Argentinas Travel: 130 of the amateur athletes headed to this year’s Olympics were honored by the Argentine government on Tuesday in Buenos Aires. According to the China View, the athletes received sportsmen diplomas and scholarships of 4,000 pesos.

Sports Minister Claudio Morresi attended the event and commented on what made it unique. He noted that while most countries honor their medal winners, Argentina was proud to honor their athletes for the incredible effort it took just to get to that place. Attendees included the members of the Argentine women’s field hockey team, Las Leonas, who recently won the Champions Trophy in Germany and are hoping for Olympic gold.

I particularly like that scholarship stuff because it encourages athletes to also think about going to school. Sports stars have shorter fame-minutes than Hollywood celebrities so its good if they also plan a future beyond sports. Surely, no one wants to be one of those “yesterday’s athletes who beg on the streets” that Nigeria’s Olosuji Fasuba lamented about here.

Note: For the financial and other incentives received by Olympic athletes from different country’s click here .

Related:
Country Report: Argentina’s Beijing Bound Athletes

Team competitions
Football/Soccer: 36 players — 18 men and 18 women. Argentina will be defending its men’s Olympic football title.

Basketball (men’s): 12 athletes. Like football, the Argentinian team is the defending champion in men’s basketball.

Meanwhile, named athletes who qualified in other sports are:

Yachting: Carlos Espa­nola, Santiago Lange, Javier Conte-Juan, Julio Alsogaray, Cecilia Carranza, Mariano Reutemann and Florence Gutierrez, and Fernanda Sesto-Consuelo Monsegur.

Athletics: Jennifer Dahlgren, Juan Cerra, German Chiaraviglio, Alejandra Garcia, Javier Carriqueo, Pablo Pietrobelli, German Lauro, and Claudia Camargo.

Swimming: Georgina Bardach,Jose Meolans, Sergio Ferreyra, Andres Gonzalez, Cecilia Biagioli, Javiera Salcedo, Juan Pereyra and Esteban Peace.

Cycling: Walter Perez, Juan Curuchet, Darío Gasco.
Judo: Paula Paretto, Miguel Albarracín, and Emmanuel Lucenti.
Rowing: Fernandez and Gabriela Best
Table tennis: Liu Song and Pablo Tabachnik
Beach volleyball: Marti­n Count and Mariano Baracetti
Taekwondo: Vanina Sanchez Beran
Shooting: Juan Carlos Dasque

Source: Clarin via Xinhua. Photo credit: Clarin