Brazil’s Lula praises Olympic athletes at presidential palace

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Monday met with nearly three dozen athletes from the nation’s Olympic delegation in capital Brasilia.

Brazil won 20 medals at the 2024 Paris Olympic games, of which three were gold, seven silver and 10 bronze. Nearly all 276 Brazilian athletes who competed are current or former beneficiaries of the federal government’s Athlete Grant welfare program and, in his address, Lula exalted public investment in sport as a means to provide opportunity to underprivileged children.

“I’m going to mark today as a new era in the practice of sport in this country. I want to help this country be a country that bets big on kids who dedicate themselves to practicing sport,” Lula said.

He added that the assembled athletes stand as examples to millions of Brazilian boys and girls and, at one point, called on two skateboarders to perform kickflips on the presidential palace’s marble floor.

The star of Brazil’s delegation, gymnast Rebeca Andrade, wasn’t present at Monday’s ceremony. The 25-year-old, a friend and a competitor of U.S. superstar Simone Biles, in Paris became Brazil’s most-decorated Olympian of all time, with six medals. ___

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america