Marco Wandura – OTV Europe Correspondent
SPORTBILD from Germany featured Olympic “outsiders” in their online edition. Palau’s very own Jennifer Anson was one of them and told reporters about her Olympic Judo fight: “When the fight started, I forgot everything. I wanted to be defensive-minded but still trying to be aggressive. Full of sudden I was on the mat and the fight was lost.”
Her fight lasting 46 seconds was even shorter than Nauru´s judoka Sled Dowabobo´s fight. His Olympic experience ended after just one minute. Nauru is the third smallest country in the world – only the Vatican and the principality of Monaco are smaller. Maybe the oddest outsider is Japan´s dressage rider Hiroshi Hoketsu. He already participated in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo and is now 71 years old. Being asked if he still wanted to be in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro he said:” Yes. But my horse is 15 now and will be too old in four years.”