IOC code TLS Flag bearer Agueda Amaral | Competitors 2 in 1 sport 0 0 | |
 | ||
NOC National Olympic Committee of East Timor Medals Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total
0
0
0
0 | ||
Timor-Leste competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, which was held from 13 to 29 August 2004. The nation's appearance at the 2004 Athens Games marked its official debut in any Olympic event and also the Summer Olympics.
Two track and field athletes, Gil da Cruz Trindade and Agueda Amaral, were selected to represent the nation via wildcards, as the nation had no athletes that met either the "A" or "B" qualifying standards in their respective events, the Men's and Women's marathons. At 32 years and 88 days, Amaral became the oldest athlete to represent the nation at the Summer Games, which still stands today. She was also selected as the nation's first flag bearer for the opening ceremony.
Ultimately, neither athlete won a medal in their events, with Trindade not even finishing his marathon. This therefore meant that Timor-Leste won no medals in the Athens Games.
Background
Although this was the official Summer Olympics debut for Timor-Leste, East Timorese athletes had competed as Individual Olympic Athletes in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Because the athletes did not win a medal at the previous Olympics, no athlete from the nation had won a medal prior to the 2004 Athens Games.
The Timor-Leste National Olympic Committee (NOC) selected two athletes via wildcards. Usually, a NOC would be able to enter up to three qualified athletes in each individual event as long as each athlete met the "A" standard, or one athlete per event if they met the "B" standard.