The rain pouring over the French capital during the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, did not deter the Olympic spirit, as the athletes participating in the competition were celebrated on Friday evening, in a superb show, which saw six handball players selected to be flagbearers for their country.

One of them was Azenaide Carlos, Angola’s right back, who has a fantastic Olympic journey for herself. Carlos is now at her fifth consecutive edition of the Olympics, having made her debut at Beijing 2008. Only three other players – Norway’s Katrine Lunde, herself a flagbearer at Paris 2024, and Korea’s Seong-Ok Oh and Yeong-Ran Oh – have achieved this superb performance in the women’s handball competition.

“Life is totally different now than it was 16 years ago. It's totally different because when I was there for the first time, I didn't have any idea what is this, why I'm here at the Olympic Games. But now it's totally different. I want to be here. I expect to be here. I wait for this and then I want to live this. So it's totally different,” says Carlos.

At 34 years old, Carlos is the second oldest player in Angola’s squad, having made her debut at the Olympics when she was only 18 years old. Since then, she played one year in Spain, came back to Angola and then went on to feature in Croatia, Romania and Türkiye, before returning to Romania, currently playing at CSM Corona Brașov.

Therefore, she is one of the most experienced players in Angola’s squad, a true leader and one of the players the others look up to, especially as Carlos Viver’s squad is one of the youngest at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

But the African champions recorded a loss in their maiden match at the Olympic Games, 30:33, against the Netherlands, after constantly applying pressure on the European side, delivering some excellent moments, even scoring an in-flight goal in the second half, much to the delight of the 5.765 fans present in the South Paris Arena 6.

“I believe we can make like some kind of a surprise in this competition. We can win few games, but against who? We don't know. But if we still play like we played against the Netherlands, for sure we can win few games. And we will. I don't know who, but maybe we will,” says Carlos.

The next matches in the women’s competition will see Angola face Spain and Hungary, two teams which have lost their first matches. The first one, against Spain, will also see Carlos Viver, Angola’s coach, face off with his former side, which he left in 2021.

“I believe that we have a good team and we learn a lot. With a good coach, with this experience, a lot of players start to go out to play in Europe. But I believe that we need to work more because we know like still we have a gap to cover. And now how you can see with the Netherlands, we came to play, to fight. But it's like, okay, if we can win, we will fight to win,” says Carlos.

On the other hand, Paris 2024 was also a special moment for Carlos, who was selected to be one of Angola’s flagbearers, alongside judoka Edmilson Pedro. Talking before the Opening Ceremony, the right back had a mixed bag of emotions – being also nervous, but on the other hand joyous for the occasion. 

“I will try to don't put a lot of emotion because I'm so excited to go there. But being emotional is so great. You must know I will represent my country,” said Carlos, before being asked what famous athletes she would want to take a picture with.

"I want to take a picture with a few guys from tennis and from NBA, LeBron James and Stephen Curry, there are a lot of players but I better focus (on the Opening Ceremony) and if I get the opportunity, for sure I will take it," added the Angola right back.

What’s sure is one of Carlos’ teammates, Albertina Kassoma, managed to take a picture with another NBA star, Giannis Antetokounmpo, as all of Angola’s handball team was on the boat at the Opening Ceremony. With Carlos as flagbearer, it is clear that they are properly motivated for the next matches. And who knows, maybe they will repeat their performance from Rio 2016, when they beat Montenegro and Romania and progressed to the quarter-finals. Anything is possible at the Olympics.