Vanuatu competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, which was held from 13 to 29 August 2004. The nation's appearance at the 2004 Athens Games marked its fifth appearance at the Summer Olympics since its debut at the 1988 Summer Olympics. Two track and field athletes, Moses Kamut and Katura Marae, were selected to represent the nation via wildcards, as the nation had no athletes that met either the "A" or "B" qualifying standards. Kamut was selected as flag bearer for the opening ceremony. Marae was notable for being the youngest competitor in Athletics for this Summer Olympics, and for being the youngest ever athlete to represent Vanuatu at the Olympics, aged 14 years and 261 days. The latter is a record which still stands today. Neither of the two athletes progressed beyond the heats, both of whom finishing last in their heats, therefore meaning that Vanuatu won no medals in this Summer Olympics. Despite this, Kamut and Marae both achieved seasonal best times for their events, the 400 meters and the 100 meters respectively. Background Vanuatu participated in five Summer Olympic games between its debut in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Vanuatu would participate in the Summer Olympics from 13 to 29 August 2004. No Vanuatu athlete had ever won a medal at the Summer Olympics before the 2004 Athens Games. The Vanuatu National Olympic Committee (NOC) selected two athletes via wildcards. Usually a NOC would be able to select up to three athletes per event providing that each athlete passed the "A" standard time for that event. If no athletes met the "A" standard, then the NOC would be able to select one athlete for the event, providing that they pass the "B" standard time for the event in question. However, since Vanuatu had no athletes that met either standard for any event, they were allowed to select their best two athletes, one of each gender, to represent the nation at the Games. This was to make sure that every nation had a minimum of two representatives in the Summer Olympics. The two athletes that were selected to compete in the Athens games were Moses Kamut in the Men's 400 meters and Katura Marae in the Women's 100 meters. Along with the two athletes, the Vanuatu Olympic team consisted of Chef De Mission Michel Mainguy, VASANOC