Anthony Obame made history for Gabon on 11 August 2012, when he won the country’s first Olympic medal. Obame claimed silver in the taekwondo 80kg+ category at the London Games, and when he returned to Libreville, Gabon’s capital, he received a hero’s welcome from thousands of his compatriots. At the Rio 2016 Games, a number of other countries – such as Kosovo, Fiji, Samoa, El Salvador and Turkmenistan – hope to reach the Olympic podium for the first time.

Recognised as a member of the International Olympic Committee on 9 December 2014, Kosovo has a good chance of winning a first Olympic medal in 2016. The country has an athlete who has already tasted glory in Rio – judoka Majlinda Kelmendi won the 52kg title at the world championship in the Cidade Maravilhosa in 2013, an achievement she repeated in 2014 in Chelyabinsk, Russia. 

Kelmendi was also European champion in 2014, but her Olympic debut, representing Albania at London 2012, ended unhappily as she failed to reach the quarter-finals. However, her more recent successes give cause for hope, and she topped the world rankings for her category in the first trimester of 2015.

Majlinda Kelmendi will be one of Kosovo's main medal hopes at Rio 2016 (Photo: Getty Images/Buda Mendes)

Absent from the Olympic programme since Paris 1924, rugby returns to the Games in Rio in the sevens format, giving two countries which have never reached the podium a chance to do so: the Pacific island nations of Fiji and Samoa.

Since the World Series, the principal annual competition for rugby sevens, was created in 1999, Fiji has always finished in the top four, being crowned champions in 2006, runners up in 2012 and coming third in 2013 and 2014. Fiji also won the Sevens World Cup in 2005 and finished third in the last edition, in 2013.

Samoa has finished among the top four in seven editions of the World Series, winning the competition in 2010. It has also twice reached the Sevens World Cup semi-finals, in 1997 and 2009, and will be among the medal contenders at Rio 2016. 

Fiji and Samoa will be among the rugby sevens medal contenders at Rio 2016 (Photo: Getty Images/Brendon Thorne)

The Olympic Aquatics Stadium, in the Barra Olympic Park, could be the stage for a first Olympic Games medal for El Salvador, courtesy of swimmer Marcelo Alberto Acosta. At the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, he won his country’s first Olympic medal of any kind – silver in the 400m freestyle event. 

While El Salvador’s best hopes rest with youth, Turkmenistan will hope a more experienced competitor can win their first Olympic medal. Weightlifter Umurbek Bazarbayev, who competes in the -62kg category, finished sixth both at London 2012 and Athens 2004, and took bronze at the 2008 Asian Weightlifting Championships, in Kanazawa, Japan.