Latvia at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Infobox Olympics Latvia
games=2004 Summer
competitors=31
sports=11
flagbearer=Vadims Vasiļevskis
gold=0
silver=4
bronze=0
total=4
rank=58

Latvia competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Latvian athletes are represented by the Latvian Olympic Committee ( _lv. Latvijas Olimpiskā komiteja).

Medalists

ilver

* Vadims Vasiļevskis — Athletics, Men's Javelin Throw

* Jevgēņijs Saproņenko — Gymnastics, Men's Long Horse Vault

* Jeļena Rubļevska — Modern pentathlon, Women's Individual Competition

* Viktors Ščerbatihs — Weightlifting, Men's Super Heavyweight (+ 105 kg)

Results by event

=Athletics=

Men's 110 m Hurdles:
* Staņislavs Olijars — 5th place
** Olijars finished second in his Round 1 Heat on August 24 in a time of 13.27, qualifying for the next round. The next day in Round 2, Olijars finished first in his heat in a time of 13.26, qualifying for the semifinals. In the August 26 semifinals, Olijars came in third in his group, finishing in a time of 13.20, a season’s best. In the August 27 finals, Olijars dropped by a second, finishing in 13.21 and earning fifth place. The gold medal went to Liu Xiang, who set a new Olympic record with a time of 12.91.

Women's 400 m Hurdles:
* Ieva Zunda — 23rd place
** Zunda didn't qualify for the semifinals, finishing fourth in her heat August 21 with a time of 56.21.

Men's 800 m:
* Dmitrijs Miļkevičs — 15th place
** Miļkevičs on August 25 finished first in his heat in a time of 1:46.66, qualifying for the semifinals. But in the semifinals, he finished seventh in his group with a time of 1:46.62, not fast enough to qualify for the finals.

Women's 10 km:
* Jeļena Prokopčuka — 7th place
** Prokopčuka finished seventh overall in a time of 31:04.10. The gold medal in the August 27 event went to Xing Huina of China, who finished the race in 30:24.36 and set a personal best.

Men's Decathlon:
* Jānis Karlivāns — 25th place
** Karlivāns of Latvia finished 25th overall with a score of 7,583, or 1,310 points behind the gold medalist. Karlivāns earned 789 point in the 100-meter race, finishing last in his heat with a time of 11.33. In the long jump, he earned 876 points with a leap of 7.26 meters. Karlivāns got 686 points in the shot put with a toss of 13.30 meters. In the high jump, he earned 776 points with a jump of 1.97 meters. He ran the 400-meter race in 50.54, finishing last in his heat and earning 790 points. In the 110-meter hurdles, Karlivāns scored a personal best, finishing in 14.98 and adding 852 more points. A throw of 43.34 meters in the discus event earned him 733 points. In the pole vault, Karlivāns cleared 4.50 meters, getting another 760 points. But in the javelin event, he finished last in his group with a throw of 52.92 meters, earning 632 points. Finally, in the 1,500-meter race, Karlivāns got another personal best, finishing in 4:38.67 and adding another 689 points. The gold medal was won by Roman Šebrle of the Czech Republic.

Men's 20 km walk:
* Aigars Fadejevs — 9th place (1h 22m 08s)

Women's 20 km Walk:
* Anita Liepiņa — 45th place
** Liepiņa finished the August 23 event in 45th place with a time of 1:39:54, or 10:42 behind gold medalist Athanasia Tsoumeleka of Greece.

Men's 50 km Walk:
* Aigars Fadejevs — 11th place
* Modris Liepiņš — 25th place

Women's Long Jump:
* Ineta Radēviča — 13th place
* Valentīna Gotovska — 31st place
** Radēviča and Gotovska failed August 25 to qualify for the final, although Radēviča did record a season’s best in the event. Her best leap was 6.53 meters, placing her 13th overall, missing qualification by just a bit. The top 12 finishers advanced. Gotovska finished 24th overall with a jump of 6.41 meters.

Women's Triple Jump:
* Ineta Radēviča — Qualifying round
** Although she did not advance beyond the qualifying round, Latvia’s Radēviča set a personal best August 21 in the triple jump with a leap 14.12 meters. She finished 20th overall in the event.

Men's Javelin Throw:
* Vadims Vasiļevskis — Silver Medal
* Ēriks Rags — 7th place
* Voldemārs Lūsis — 17th place
** Vasiļevskis and Ēriks Rags qualified August 26 for the final in the event. Vasiļevskis placed third overall in the qualifying rounds, throwing the javelin a distance of 84.43 meters, a personal best. To qualify for the finals, athletes had to record a distance of at least 81 meters, or be among the top 12 overall. Rags placed 11th with a throw of 80.84 meters. Lūsis placed 17th overall after recording a throw of 79.27 meters, not far enough to qualify for the final. In the August 28 final, Vasiļevskis earned the silver medal with a throw of 84.95 meters, another personal best. Rags took seventh place with a throw of 83.14 meters. The gold medal in the event went to Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen, who tossed the javelin 86.50 meters.

Women's Javelin Throw:
* Ilze Gribule — 34th place
** Gribule’s best throw of 54.92 meters on August 25 was not far enough to let her advance to the finals. She finished in 17th place in her group. To advance to the finals, an athlete had to throw the javelin at least 61 meters or be in the top 12.

Women's Discus Throw:
* Dace Ruskule — 28th place
** Ruskule’s best throw in the August 20 qualifying round was 57.43 meters, placing her 14th in her group and 28th overall. But that was not far enough to advance to the finals. The minimum distance required was 62.50 meters.

=Canoe/Kayak=

Men's C-1 500 metres
* Dagnis Vinogradovs — Semifinal, 11th place
** Vinogradovs qualified August 24 for the semifinals with a time of 1:50.776, coming in second in his heat. But in the August 26 semifinals, Vinogradovs was eliminated after he came in fifth in his group with a time of 1:52.511. He needed to be in the top three.

Men's C-1 1000 metres
* Dagnis Vinogradovs — Final, 6th place
** Vinogradovs qualified August 23 for the semifinals with a time of 3:57.070, or 4.148 behind the leader in his heat, Andreas Dittmer of Germany. In the August 25 semifinals, Vinogradovs qualified for the final by finishing the course in a time of 3:53.656, coming in fifth overall. In the final, Vinogradovs placed sixth, finishing in 3:53.537. The gold medal went to David Cal of Spain, who finished in 3:46.201.

=Cycling=

Men's Road Race:
* Romāns Vainšteins — 28th place
* Andris Naudužs — DNF
** Veteran cyclist Vainšteins finished 42nd in the 17-lap, 224.4-kilometer race through the historic center of Athens on August 14. Latvia’s other cyclist, Andris Naudužs, didn't finish. The gold went to Italy’s Paolo Bettini.

=Gymnastics=

Men's Individual All-Around:
* Igors Vihrovs — 18th place
** Vihrovs, who four years ago earned Latvia’s first gold medal ever in a surprise victory in the floor exercise, finished 18th in the August 18 individual all-around event with a score of 55.873. Vihrovs’ best score was 9.700 in the vault, his lowest 8.862 on the pommel horse. The gold medal went to Paul Hamm of the United States, who finished with a total score of 57.823.

Men's Vault:
* Jevgēņijs Saproņenko — Silver Medal
** Saproņenko earned Latvia’s first medal of these Olympics — a silver. Saproņenko was one of eight athletes competing in the August 23 final. His two attempts earned 9.712 and 9.700, for a combined total of 9.706. The gold medal went to Gervasio Deferr of Spain, who scored 9.737. The bronze medal went to Marian Dragulescu of Romania, who scored 9.612.

=Judo=

Men's -73 kg:
* Vsevolods Zeļonijs — Lost in 1st round
** Zeļonijs lost August 16 to Mongolia’s Damdiny Suldbayar at the round of 32 level and did not advance. Four years ago in Sydney, Zeļonijs won the bronze medal.

=Modern pentathlon=

Men's Individual Competition
* Deniss Čerkovskis — 4th place
** Čerkovskis came close to a medal in the August 26 event, finishing fourth overall with a score of 5,356. Čerkovskis came in 11th in the shooting competition, earning 1,096 points. In fencing, he ranked second along with three other athletes, earning 916 ponts. He placed 17th in swimming, adding another 1,252 points. In the riding event, Čerkovskis came in 23rd, earning 1,004 points. And in running he came in third, giving him another 1,088 points. The gold medal was won by Russia’s Andrey Moiseev.

Women's Individual Competition
* Jeļena Rubļevska — Silver Medal
** Although she seemed to lag in some events, Jeļena Rubļevska came on strong in fencing and running August 27 and earned a silver medal with a total of 5,380 points. The gold medal went to Zsuzsanna Voros of Hungary, who scored 5,448. In the shooting event, Rubļevska came in 15th and earned 988 points. But in fencing, she came in first, adding 1,028 points. Rubļevska dropped to 21st in swimming, earning 1,160 points. In the riding event, she came in 14th, earning 1,116 points. And in running, Rubļevska took fourth, gaining 1,088 points.

=Sailing=

Women's Mistral:
* Vita Matīse — 20th place
** Windsurfer Matīse on August 25 held on to 20th place overall after completing the last of 11 races. The gold medal went to Faustine Merret of France.

=Shooting=

Men's 25 m Rapid Fire Pistol:
* Afanasijs Kuzmins — 14th place
** It was a disappointing day on August 21 for Kuzmins, who wound up 14th out of 17 competitors. His score was 574. World record holder Ralf Schumann of Germany won the gold medal in the event.

=Swimming=

Men's 100 m Breaststroke:
* Pāvels Murāns - 50th place

Men's 100 m Butterfly:
* Andrejs Dūda — 53rd place

Men's 100 m Freestyle:
* Romans Miloslavskis — 35th place

Men's 200 m Freestyle:
* Romāns Miloslavskis — 23rd place

Men's 200 m Individual Medley:
* Guntars Deičmans — 25th place

Men's 400 m Individual Medley:
* Guntars Deičmans — 30th place

Women's 100 m Freestyle:
* Agnese Ozoliņa — 43rd place

=Weightlifting=

Men's +105 kg
* Viktors Ščerbatihs — Silver Medal
** Ščerbatihs on August 25 earned Latvia’s second silver medal of these Olympics. He lifted 205 kilograms in the snatch and 250 kilograms in the clean and jerk, for a total of 455 kilograms. The gold medal went to Hossein Reza Zadeh of Iran.

=Wrestling=

Men’s 96-kilogram
* Igors Kostins —
** Latvia’s only competitor in wrestling lost to Uzbekistan’s Aleksey Cheglakov and Turkey’s Mehmet Ozal in the August 25 elimination rounds.

Officials

*President: Vilnis Baltiņš
*Secretary General: Aldons Vrubļevskis