2 Euro BU

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris took place from 26 July to 11 August 2024. Officially, they are referred to as the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad. After 1900 and 1924, Paris was the host city for the third time. The 2024 Games therefore took place exactly one century after the previous Paris edition. The programme comprised 32 sports; Breaking was included in the Olympic competition programme for the first time.

Portugal has participated in the Summer Olympics since 1912. The Comité Olímpico de Portugal, founded in 1909, is responsible for sending and supporting the team. It represents Portugal within the Olympic Movement and coordinates cooperation with the national sports federations. Portuguese athletes therefore compete at the Games not directly as a state delegation, but under the responsibility of the national Olympic committee.

Portugal’s Olympic history is linked to Paris through an early sporting achievement: at the 1924 Games, Portugal won its first Olympic medal, bronze in the team show jumping event. One hundred years later, the Portuguese team consisted of 73 athletes. It won four medals. Iúri Leitão and Rui Oliveira jointly won the Madison in track cycling; Leitão also won silver in the Omnium. Pedro Pichardo received silver in the triple jump, and Patrícia Sampaio bronze in judo.

The coin was issued as early as July 2024 and thus at the beginning of the Games. Its occasion was therefore not a particular medal success, but the dispatch of the Portuguese team as a whole. At the Olympic Games, sports delegations represent national representation as well as participation in an international event organised according to common rules. The issue also referred to Portugal’s continuous participation in the Olympics and to the temporal connection with the first Portuguese medal wins in 1924, even though the coin is expressly dedicated to participation in 2024.