Smaller South American nations defy financial odds to reach Paris

MONTEVIDEO : For Uruguayan sailor Dolores Moreira, renting a boat and towing it across Europe to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics is all part of the money-saving process when you come from a small South American country.

This summer marks the third Olympic Games for the 25-year-old Moreira, known as Lola, representing her native Uruguay.

Countless times she has attached a dinghy to the roof of her car to set off across South America to compete regionally since her Olympic debut at the age of 16 in Rio de Janeiro.

So collecting a rental boat in Barcelona this month and driving it to Marseille to cut costs will be nothing new.

"For days and days I'd drive with the boat up top to make everything a little more accessible and so I could travel to more championships and perfect my technique," Moreira told Reuters at the La Estacada yacht club in Montevideo, overlooking a vast estuary.

South America and the Caribbean received the lowest level of funding for athlete grants from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) compared to every other world region, according to 2021 figures filed with the Internal Revenue Service in the United States.

National sports budgets in South America are primarily dedicated to football - the continent's favourite and most lucrative pastime.

There were no high-level sailing competitions in Uruguay said Moreira, who grew up in the riverside department of Paysandu north-west of the capital.

To improve, "you have to constantly go abroad," which meant expenses accumulated she said.

Liber Garcia is one of the country's Olympic committee directors and works as a bank manager in Montevideo. In Uruguay, with a population of 3.4 million, "everything is amateur, even the (Olympic) leadership itself," said Garcia.