Estonia at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Estonia at the 2016 Summer Olympics
IOC code	EST
NOC	Estonian Olympic Committee
Website	www.eok.ee (Estonian)
in Rio de Janeiro
Competitors	45 in 13 sports
Flag bearer	Karl-Martin Rammo (opening)[1] Mart Seim (closing)
Medals Ranked 78th	Gold Silver Bronze Total 0 0 1 1
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948–1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016
Other related appearances
Russian Empire (1908–1912) Soviet Union (1952–1988)

Estonia competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's seventh consecutive appearance at the Games in the post-Soviet era and twelfth overall in Summer Olympic history.

The Estonian Olympic Committee fielded a team of 45 athletes, 28 men and 17 women, across 13 sports at the Games.^[2] It was the nation's second-largest delegation sent to the Olympics, just two athletes short of the record achieved in Beijing 2008 (47). Among the sports represented by its athletes, Estonia marked its Olympic return to triathlon after an eight-year hiatus, as well as weightlifting after eight decades. Athletics had the largest team by sport with only 13 competitors, roughly a third of the nation's full roster size; apart from triathlon and weightlifting, there was also only a single competitor in archery, judo, and shooting.

Fifteen Estonian athletes previously competed in London, with discus thrower and 2008 champion Gerd Kanter, rowers Tõnu Endrekson and Andrei Jämsä, and épée fencer Nikolai Novosjolov headed to their fourth Games as the most experienced competitors of the team.^[2] Sisters and marathon runners Leina, Liina, and Lily Luik set a historic record for Estonia, as the first identical triplets to compete in the same event at the Games.^[3][4] Other notable athletes on the Estonian roster featured Greco-Roman wrestler and 2012 silver medalist Heiki Nabi in the super heavyweight category, and Laser sailor Karl-Martin Rammo, who was selected by the committee as the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony.^[1][5]

Estonia left Rio de Janeiro with only a bronze medal, signifying its poorest showing in Olympic history since the break-up of the Soviet Union. It was awarded to the rowing foursome of Endrekson, Jamsa, and three-time Olympians Allar Raja and Kaspar Taimsoo in the men's quadruple sculls, rebounding from their out-of-medal position in London four years earlier.^[6][7] Meanwhile, several Estonian athletes successfully reached the finals of their respective sporting events, but came closest to the medal haul, including the women's épée team, discus throwers Kanter and Martin Kupper, hurdler Rasmus Mägi, and Nabi, who could not reproduce his podium feat from London after losing the bronze to Russia's Sergey Semenov.^[8]

Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
03 ! Bronze	Tõnu Endrekson Andrei Jämsä Allar Raja Kaspar Taimsoo	Rowing	Men's quadruple sculls	000000002016-08-11-000011 August

Archery

One Estonian archer has qualified for the women's individual recurve at the Olympics by virtue of a top six national finish at the 2016 Archery World Cup meet in Antalya, Turkey.^[9]

Athlete	Event	Ranking round		Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final / BM
		Score	Seed	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Laura Nurmsalu	Women's individual	625	35	Marchenko (UKR) L 0–6	Did not advance

Athletics

Estonian athletes have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event):^[10][11]

Men

Track & road events

Field events

Combined events – Decathlon

Women

Track & road events

Field events

Combined events – Heptathlon

Badminton

Estonia has qualified two badminton players for each of the following events into the Olympic tournament. Remarkably going to his third Olympics, Raul Must had claimed his Olympic spot as one of top 34 individual shuttlers in the BWF World Rankings as of 5 May 2016, while Kati Tolmoff picked up one of the spare athlete berths freed by the Tripartite Commission as the next highest-ranked eligible player in the women's singles.^[12][13]

Athlete	Event	Group Stage			Elimination	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Final / BM
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Raul Must	Men's singles	Jørgensen (DEN) L (8–21, 15–21)	Leverdez (FRA) L (18–21, 21–18, 12–21)	3	Did not advance
Kati Tolmoff	Women's singles	Intanon (THA) L (14–21, 13–21)	Yip P Y (HKG) W (5–21, 21–13, 21–19)	2	Did not advance

Cycling

Road

Estonian riders qualified for a maximum of two quota places in the men's Olympic road race by virtue of their top 15 final national ranking in the 2015 UCI Europe Tour.^[14]

Fencing

Estonian fencers have qualified a full squad in the women's team épée by virtue of their top 4 national finish in the FIE Olympic Team Rankings.^[15] Meanwhile, Nikolai Novosjolov, who will compete at his fourth Olympics, secured a spot in the men's épée as one of the two highest-ranking fencers coming from the Europe zone outside the world's top eight qualifying teams in the FIE Adjusted Official Rankings.^[16]

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Final / BM
		Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Opposition Score	Rank
Nikolai Novosjolov	Men's épée	Bye	Park K-d (KOR) W 12–10	F Limardo (VEN) W 15–12	Imre (HUN) L 9–15	Did not advance
Julia Beljajeva	Women's épée	Bye	Szász (HUN) L 11–15	Did not advance
Irina Embrich		Bye	Pantelyeyeva (UKR) W 15–3	Sun Yw (CHN) L 12–15	Did not advance
Erika Kirpu		Bye	Holmes (USA) W 5–4	S Besbes (TUN) L 11–15	Did not advance
Julia Beljajeva Irina Embrich Erika Kirpu Kristina Kuusk	Women's team épée	N/A		Bye	South Korea (KOR) W 27–26	China (CHN) L 36–45	Russia (RUS) L 31–37	4

Judo

Estonia has qualified one judoka for the men's half-heavyweight category (100 kg) at the Games. Grigori Minaškin earned a continental quota spot from the European region as the highest-ranked Estonian judoka outside of direct qualifying position in the IJF World Ranking List of May 30, 2016.^[17][18]

Athlete	Event	Round of 64	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Grigori Minaškin	Men's −100 kg	Bye	Rakov (KAZ) L 000–000 S	Did not advance

Rowing

Estonia has qualified one boat in the men's quadruple sculls for the Olympics at the 2015 FISA World Championships in Lac d'Aiguebelette, France.

Athlete	Event	Heats		Repechage		Final
		Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Tõnu Endrekson Andrei Jämsä Allar Raja Kaspar Taimsoo	Men's quadruple sculls	5:51.71	1 FA	Bye		6:10.65	03 !

Qualification Legend: FA=Final A (medal); FB=Final B (non-medal); FC=Final C (non-medal); FD=Final D (non-medal); FE=Final E (non-medal); FF=Final F (non-medal); SA/B=Semifinals A/B; SC/D=Semifinals C/D; SE/F=Semifinals E/F; QF=Quarterfinals; R=Repechage

Sailing

Estonian sailors have qualified one boat in each of the following classes through the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships, the individual fleet Worlds, and European qualifying regattas.^[19][20][21] The women's 49erFX crew was added to the Estonia's sailing line-up, as the nation has received a spare Olympic berth freed up by Australia, Croatia and Austria from the International Sailing Federation.

Men

Women

M = Medal race; EL = Eliminated – did not advance into the medal race

Shooting

Estonia has received an invitation from ISSF to send European Games finalist Peeter Olesk in both men's air and rapid fire pistol to the Olympics, as long as the minimum qualifying score (MQS) was fulfilled by March 31, 2016.^[22][23]

Qualification Legend: Q = Qualify for the next round; q = Qualify for the bronze medal (shotgun)

Swimming

Estonia has received a Universality invitation from FINA to send two swimmers (one male and one female) to the Olympics.^[24][25]

Triathlon

Estonia has entered one triathlete to compete at the Games, signifying the nation's Olympic comeback to the sport after an eight-year hiatus. Kaidi Kivioja was selected as the highest-ranked triathlete from Europe in the women's event based on the ITU Points List.^[26][27]

Weightlifting

Estonia has qualified one male weightlifter for the Olympics by virtue of his top 15 individual finish, among those who had not secured any quota places through the World or European Championships, in the IWF World Rankings as of June 20, 2016, signifying the nation's Olympic return to the sport for the first time since 1936. The place was awarded to Mart Seim in the men's super heavyweight division (+105 kg).^[28]

Wrestling

Estonia has qualified three wrestlers for each the following weight classes into the Olympic tournament. One of them had claimed an Olympic spot in the women's freestyle 75 kg at the 2015 World Championships, while two more Olympic berths were awarded to Estonian wrestlers, who progressed to the top two finals each in men's Greco-Roman 98 & 130 kg at the 2016 European Qualification Tournament.^[29][30]

Men's Greco-Roman

Athlete	Event	Qualification	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Ardo Arusaar	−98 kg	Bye	Magomedov (RUS) L 0−6	Did not advance					16
Heiki Nabi	−130 kg	Bye	López (CUB) L 0−3	Did not advance		Bye	Eurén (SWE) W 3−0	Semenov (RUS) L 0−6	5

Women's freestyle

Athlete	Event	Qualification	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Final / BM
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Epp Mäe	−75 kg	Bye	Zhang Fl (CHN) L 4−6	Did not advance					13

References