We met a little more than a month ago at the send-off event in Esplanāde. You received our best wishes and thoughts before leaving for the games. You took them with you. You have returned with medals and with good performances. Dear Olympians, you are our heroes and you can be sure we all watched you compete, even despite the time difference which made it slightly unusual. I hope that good thoughts our people were constantly sending you also worked for your benefit.
You have achieved one of the best results ever in the history of Latvian sports. Jānis Dāliņš became the first athlete to win an Olympic medal in 1932 during the Los Angeles games. We recently reopened the arena named after him after major reconstruction and now it meets the modern standards and is absolutely astonishing. This shows that we really appreciate sports here in Latvia for two reasons. First, of course, is because we appreciate your achievements as a measure of the limits that humans can achieve. Secondly, because of social impact. You bring people together. There are many different divisions in our society, but when it comes to sports we are all one and we are all Latvians, everyone who lives here.
Thank you very much for your performance in the sports arena, and for what you do for our society, bringing it together.
Medals will forever stay with you, but those medals belong to the whole of Latvia. We have got a gold medal, and a bronze medal. I am honoured to present the presidential medal of honour for the outstanding result to Edgars Krūmiņš. Your teammates could not join you here today and will receive them later, but we are extremely grateful to you Mr Krūmiņš. Thank you very much. Your victory came as a bit of a surprise. The whole Latvia and the world were surprised. Your 3x3 basketball team showed what we Latvians are really capable of.
I am also honoured to present the presidential medal of honour to our bronze medallist Artūrs Plēsnieks. Your unshakeable perseverance and determination have allowed you to achieve one of the highest results in your career so far. We hope there are many more to follow. Thank you for giving us many happy moments!
Our athletes are now competing at the Paralympics, and we all wish our Paralympians all the best and results that parallel yours or are even better. So, we keep sending our good thoughts from Olympics to Paralympics now. Thank you all!