Rosa Mota denies receiving invitation from Portuguese Olympic Committee to compete in Olympic Games

Olympic champion Rosa Mota today denied reports that she had received an invitation from the President of the Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP) to attend the 2024 Games in Paris, as stated by José Manuel Constantino in an interview with Lusa.

Rosa Mota, 66, a marathon gold medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and who carried the Paris 2024 Olympic flame on one of the routes, said in a note sent to Lusa that she never received an invitation to attend in France.

The veteran athlete, who continues to set world records in her category, adds that she tries not to get involved in controversy even at the expense of her image, but maintains that in this case “a lie or a lie cannot go unpunished.”

“This time I felt particularly uncomfortable. And that’s why I decided to spend my precious time clarifying the statement of a person who, I think, is too concerned about his fame, even if they have to use my name half-truth,” she adds.

Rosa Mota claims that she contacted the Constitutional Court, which admitted that they had made a mistake. In view of this, he put an end to this matter, as he believed that an organization that they wanted to continue to respect would restore the truth of the facts and apologize for the mistake.

But since this did not happen, the Olympic champion was forced to “very reluctantly” issue a statement clarifying the situation.

“Without explaining what happened, there may still be doubt as to whether what happened was an oversight or bad faith when a person who does not want to be invited says that he was invited,” says Rosa Mota.

The athlete adds that “in other situations where there was commitment, there were phone calls, which were not the case this time.”

“Organizations and institutions should not suffer because of the lack of responsibility, class or integrity of those who run them, so I emphasize my respect for the KS as an organization, as well as my sadness at the deplorable “feats” such as what they intend to achieve,” he adds.

Rosa Mota also states that if the invitation had come in April, she would, as she always does in situations of equal importance and in which her response would have consequences for the invitation of other people, have informed the KS services of her “non-acceptance”.

On July 23, in an interview with Lusa, José Manuel Constantino said that, as was the case in practice, he had extended invitations to four Portuguese Olympic champions – another, Pedro Pichardo, will defend the title he won in the triple jump at Tokyo 2020.

“We invited Carlos Lopes, who thanked us but said that because of age, fatigue, in short, all this, he would not go and watch the Games from Lisbon. We invited Fernanda, who mentioned the same family problems. We invited Nelson [Évora]who was grateful, but who was a father and therefore had to support the family. And we invited Rosa Motu, who did not respond,” he specified.