Team Panama - Profile

Panama sent its first team to the Olympic Games at the 1928 edition in Amsterdam, but it was not until 2008 that the NOC won its first gold medal. Irving Saladino managed to break the drought when he won the men's long jump.

Saladino's gold was not the first medal for Panama, however, as 60 years earlier Lloyd LaBeach took two bronze medals in the men's 100m and 200m sprints at the London 1948 Games. LaBeach's success in the high-profile events was all the more remarkable because he was Panama's lone representative at the Games and only the second athlete from the nation to compete at the Olympic Games, after Adan Gordon who swam the 100m and 400m freestyle in 1928.

The athletics track is where Panama has come close to the podium on two other occasions. At the 1976 Games in Montreal, Guy Abrahams finished fifth in the men's 100m and at the 2004 Games in Athens Bayano Kamani finished fifth in the 400m hurdles.

At the Rio 2016 Games, 10 athletes competed in seven sports for Panama. Sprinter Alonso Edward finished seventh on the track in the final of the men's 200m.