This picture shows the Olympic rings and Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on July 20, 2021, ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. (Photo by Behrouz MEHRI / AFP)

 

By Thai PBS World’s Sport desk

 

Thailand is targeting at least one gold medal as 41 Thai athletes launch their campaigns at the Tokyo Olympics, which start on Friday (July 23) under a sealed COVID-19 “bubble”.

 

A Thai delegation of 15 male and 26 female athletes will represent the Kingdom in 15 disciplines at the quadrennial sports tournament from July 23 to August 8. The Games were postponed last year due to the pandemic.

 

At the 2016 edition in Brazil, the country won two gold medals thanks to female weightlifters Sopita Tanasan (48kg) and Sukanya Srisurat (58kg) before finishing joint 35th in the medals table alongside Belgium.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thai-athletes-enter-tokyo-olympic-bubble-with-3-gold-medals-in-sight/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-07-21

 

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a bit further down in the article...

 

However, Thailand will have to rely on other sports over the next fortnight as its weightlifting team is barred from international events after eight Thai lifters tested positive for banned substances at the 2018 World Championships.

 

 

Nice incentives...

 

Athletes will return home baht-millionaires if they manage to bag a place on the podium. A handsome cheque of Bt12 million will be waiting for each Thai gold medallist while a silver is worth Bt7.2 million and a bronze, Bt4.8 million.

I think there are about to be quite a few sad stories coming up of competitors getting into finals and then kicked out for testing positive