220 Andalusian athletes have competed in a total of 16 summer or winter Olympic Games. The first was Leopoldo Sainz de la Maza, part of the silver medal-winning polo team at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.
In all, Andalusians have won six gold medals, 11 silver, and two bronze. Winners of multiple medals include the Córdoban boxer Rafael Lozano (bronze in the 1996 Summer Olympics at Atlanta, Georgia, US, and silver in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia); sailor Theresa Zabell, Malagueña by adoption (gold medals at Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996). Other notable winners have been Granadan tennis player Manuel Orantes (silver in the men’s singles of the demonstration tournament in Mexico City in 1968), Jerezano riders Ignacio Rambla and Rafael Soto (silver in dressage in Athens in 2004) and the racewalker Paquillo Fernández from Guadix (silver in Athens in 2004).
The largest number of Olympic appearances were by the Malagueña swimmer MarÃa Peláez (five appearances), the Granadan skier MarÃa José Rienda (four), the Sevillian rider Luis Astolfi (four), and the Sevillian rower Fernando Climent (four, including a silver at Los Angeles, California, US, in 1984.
Seville has been a pre-candidate to host the Summer Olympics in two occasions, 2004 and 2008, and Granada has been a pre-candidate to host the winter Olympics; neither has ever succeeded in its candidature. The ski resort of Sierra Nevada, near Granada, has however hosted the 1996 Alpine World Ski Championships, and Granada hosted the 2015 Winter Universiade.