With three months to go before the biggest sporting event of the year gets underway, Estonia currently has nine Olympic places and, as things stand, will only be represented in Paris in five disciplines. However, according to Martti Raju, sporting director of the Estonian Olympic Committee (EOK), the size of the team is expected to grow to 25 athletes for the games.

Since regaining independence, Estonia's delegation to the Summer Olympics has never been smaller than 30 athletes. In 2008 and 2016, as many as 47 athletes represented the country at the games.

"If you start to look realistically at what is different about this Olympic cycle, first of all, of course, it is that it is a three-year cycle, not a four-year cycle. Compared to the previous cycle, which was a five-year one, and where we actually had a formidable team for the size of our country, it seems that a three-year cycle is not right for us," Raju told ERR.

"The other thing that has definitely changed is that, broadly speaking, the male-female ratio in sports is being brought towards parity and often this has a strong impact on the areas in which we compete," Raju explained.

In addition to external influences, former Riigikogu MP and two-time Olympic silver medalist Jüri Jaanson, sees the way sport is managed in Estonia as one of the major reasons why we are now only talking about such a small team.

"Again, the [strategy document] 'Fundamentals for the Development of Estonian Sport 2030' talks about top-level sport and how the state should fund it. However, the government has stepped back from providing direct subsidies for elite sport, from funding Olympic and elite sport projects. This is one of the factors that has meant more than €6 million has been taken away from the funding of elite sport in the last two and a half years," Jaanson said.

Former Olympic cyclist Rene Mandri believes the focus of the EOK has been misplaced for years. "Personally, I really have the impression that in Estonia we talk a lot about physical activity for children and young people, as well as public health in general, and the EOK president himself has been a very strong advocate of this. The focus has moved away from Team Estonia," said Mandri.

"There should still be people in the corridors of the EOK who stand up for top-level sport above all else and speak up for it. They should not be hoping that we will get future talent from one generation to the next as a result of individual projects, but ought to still be working constantly to ensure we have a system in place where there is a guaranteed support system to help the talent found in youth sport."

Jaanson also believes the scope for Estonia to compete in elite-level sport is narrowing. "If we are afraid of losing or do not start to finance the lower levels, the basic levels, more clearly in sport, then there is no hope of achieving victories and no hope that [someone will have] the bold aspiration of reaching the Olympics," said the two-time Olympic silver medalist.

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris begin on July 26. The final composition of the Estonian squad needs to approved by the EOK on July 5.

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