| Tanzania at the 2016 Summer Olympics | |
|---|---|
 | |
| IOC code | TAN |
| NOC | Tanzania Olympic Committee |
| inRio de Janeiro | |
| Competitors | 7 in 3 sports |
| Flag bearers | Andrew Thomas Mlugu (opening) Alphonce Felix Simbu (closing) |
| Medals |
|
| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |
Tanzania competed at the2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Seven athletes, five men and two women, competed in five events across three sports, but did not win any medals.Hilal Hemed Hilal, however, set a newnational record in the men's 50 m freestyle event. Four athletes took part in track and field athletics, all in marathons, while two participated in the swimming tournament's 50 m freestyle category. The flagbearer for the opening ceremony wasAndrew Thomas Mlugu, who was Tanzania's first Olympic judoka. His counterpart in the closing ceremony wasAlphonce Felix Simbu, who had earned the nation's best finish at the Games by placing fifth in the men's marathon. Prior to these Games, Tanzania had sent athletes to twelve editions of the Summer Olympics.
Since 1964, when it competed under the banner ofTanganyika, Tanzania had sent athletes to twelve editions of the Summer Olympic Games. On 7 July 2016, it became the first country to submit its official team for the2016 Summer Olympics held inRio de Janeiro, Brazil.[1] The nation chose judokaAndrew Thomas Mlugu as its flagbearer in theopening ceremony. A total of seven Tanzanians, five men and two women, travelled to Rio de Janeiro and competed in three different sports: track and field, judo, and swimming.[2]Alphonce Felix Simbu, who finished fifth in themen's marathon, was the nation's most successful competitor at the Games, and thus the nation failed to win its first Olympic medal since1980.[3] Nonetheless, he was selected to carry the Tanzanian flag at theclosing ceremony.[4]
Four Tanzanian athletes, three men and one woman, qualified for the Olympics, all in marathon events. The lone woman wasSara Ramadhani, whose three-year suspension from international competition for testing positive for banned substances at the2014 Commonwealth Games ended in early 2016.[5] She finished 121st out of 157 participants in thewomen's marathon.[6] Of the three men,Fabiano Joseph Naasi was the only one with previous Olympic experience, having taken part in the5000 and10,000 m events at the2004 Games and the10,000 m in2008.[7] He had also won a bronze medal in the10,000 m competition at the2006 Commonwealth Games[8] and was theWorld Half Marathon Champion in 2005.[9] In Rio he was 112th out of 155 athletes in themen's marathon.[10]Saidi Makula, who had competed in only two full marathons prior to the Olympics,[11] fared better in 43rd place.[10]Alphonce Felix Simbu, who had been 12th in themarathon at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics,[12] placed fifth, one minute and ten seconds behindGalen Rupp of the United States, the bronze medalist, and 2 minutes, 31 seconds behind winnerEliud Kipchoge of Kenya.[10]
| Athlete | Event | Final | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Rank | ||
| Saidi Makula | Men's marathon | 2:17:49 | 43 |
| Fabiano Joseph Naasi | 2:28:31 | 112 | |
| Alphonce Felix Simbu | 2:11:15 | 5 | |
| Sara Ramadhani | Women's marathon | 3:00:03 | 121 |
Tanzania competed in Olympic judo for the first time in 2016. The nation received an invitation from the Tripartite Commission to send one judoka to the Games in themen's 73 kg category and selectedAndrew Thomas Mlugu.[13] He had previous international experience from having competed at the2014 Commonwealth Games.[14] In Rio, Mlugu was defeated in his opening bout byJake Bensted of Australia and eliminated from the tournament.[15]
| Athlete | Event | Round of 64 | Round of 32 | Round of 16 | Quarterfinals | Semi-finals | Repechage | Final /BM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opposition Result | Opposition Result | Opposition Result | Opposition Result | Opposition Result | Opposition Result | Opposition Result | Rank | ||
| Andrew Thomas Mlugu | Men's −73 kg | Bye |  Bensted (AUS)L 000–100 | Did not advance | |||||
Key:L = Competitor lost the match;Bye = Athlete not required to compete in round
Two Tanzanian swimmers, one male and one female, qualified for the Olympics.Hilal Hemed Hilal received a universality place, designated for nations with no athletes who met the qualification standards, to compete in themen's 50 m freestyle.[16] Hilal took up competitive swimming in 2009 and was a member of the Taliss Swim Club. He had competed previously in the50 m freestyle and the50 m butterfly at the2013 World Aquatics Championships, as well as the 50 mfreestyle,butterfly, andbackstroke at theCommonwealth Games.[17] He had also won a bronze medal at the 2016African Swimming Confederation Zone 4 Championships in the 50 m butterfly.[18] In Rio, Hilal was placed in heat four and won it in anational record-setting time of 23.70, which was nearly a second ahead of his nearest competitor,Farhan Farhan of Bahrain.[6][19] His time, however, was still too slow to qualify him for the semi-finals, as he was 49th overall and thus not among the top 16 overall finishers who advanced.[20]
Magdalena Moshi also received a universality place for thewomen's 50 m freestyle,[21] but failed to make the semi-finals at the Games, placing equal 67th (withAngelika Ouedraogo of Burkino Faso) overall.[6] She had been placed in heat four, which was won byColleen Furgeson of the Marshall Islands, and came in fifth with a time of 29.44.[22] Born in Australia, but raised in Tanzania, she trained in the country of her birth and was a veteran of the2008 and2012 Summer Olympics as Tanzania's first female swimmer. This made her one of only two Tanzanian women to have competed in three editions of the Games as of 2016.[23]
| Athlete | Event | Heat | Semi-final | Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | ||
| Hilal Hemed Hilal | Men's 50 m freestyle | 23.70NR | 49 | Did not advance | |||
| Magdalena Moshi | Women's 50 m freestyle | 29.44 | =67 | Did not advance | |||
Key:NR = National record
