Without a doubt, the Olympic Games is the most important worldwide sporting event, and our country has participated since the first modern games, held in Athens (1896).
Around that time, Chile was one of the thirteen participating countries, with the presence of a single athlete that competed in the 100, 400 and 800 meter races. His name was Luis Subercaseaux.
To this day, Chile has been present at almost all of the Olympic Games. They have only been absent on four occasions: Paris (1900), Saint Louis (1904), London (1908) and Moscow (1980).
Chilean delegations have returned to the country with medals twelve times. The first medal was obtained by Manuel Plaza at the Amsterdam Olympic Games in 1928. That time, the national athlete came in second in a race he had not stood out in before: he covered the 42,195 meters in 2 hours, 33 minutes and 23 seconds. Upon his return to the country, thousands of people waited to cheer him on at the Mapocho Station. The president in those days, Carlos Ibañez del Campo, honored him for the achievement he had obtained.
Later on, national athletes would obtain eleven medals in different sporting disciplines.
This way, in the Helsinki Olympics of 1952, Chile earned two important silver medals thanks to the individual and team efforts of the equestrian competitors. Four years later, in Melbourne, Australia, Chile would obtain two silver medals and two bronze medals (boxing, one silver and two bronze), and, incidentally, for the first time in our history, a woman won an Olympic medal (in the javelin throw).
We would have to wait until the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988 to get another medal, thanks to the performance of Alfonso de Iruarrizaga in the Skeet competition. Later on, the national football team won the bronze medal at the games held in Sydney in the year 2000, and in Athens 2004, national tennis players Nicolas Massu and Fernando Gonzalez gave our country three medals, obtaining two golds for the first time thanks to their participation in singles and doubles.