Tikmers said that Latvia's athletes did what they could according the available funding. He repeatedly stressed that Latvia's athletes had to compete with the best sports people in the world with excellent backing.
He pointed to the Netherlands as an example, as the country's swimming team had €60m to back it up but did not post great achievements either way.
The performance of Latvia's Olympic delegation should be viewed as satisfactory, and that of several athletes - as good. Tikmers abstained from criticizing any athlete.
Among the strongest-performing athletes at the 2016 Rio Olympics were Rebeka Koha (4th in women's weightlifting), Laura Ikauniece-Admidiņa (4th in women's heptathlon) as well as Aleksejs Rumjancevs (5th in 200m men's single kayak).
While Defense Minister and former Olympian Raimonds Bergmanis said that if medals are a priority, the Defense Minister said, he'd been told by an Oxford University professor that each medal set the United Kingdom back about £3.4m.
Latvia failed to win a single medal in the recent Rio summer Olympics. It was the first-ever Olympic performance for Latvia without any medals. However the country did claim four medals in the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
Latvia was represented by 33 athletes in 13 disciplines in the Rio summer Olympics held from August 5 to August 21.
