RIO DE JANEIRO – Back in September 2015, former Campbellsville Tiger Nestor Colmenares and his Venezuelan National Basketball Team shocked the world with a FIBA Americas Championship, qualifying them for the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympic Games.

Colmenares, 28, from Caracas, Venezuela, played two years for Campbellsville – 2007-08 and 2009-10 – and was a two-time NAIA All-American helping lead the Tigers to their first NAIA Fab Four in 2008.

Team Venezuela is making its second appearance in the Olympics as they finished 11th in the Barcelona Games in 1992. This year, the Venezuelans are in Group A along with Australia, France, China, USA and Serbia.

Colmenares and his teammates, who recently lost to Team USA on July 29 80-45 in an exhibition, will open their Rio Olympics schedule Saturday, Aug. 6 at 9:30 p.m. against Serbia.

Team Venezuela will then go on to play four more games against its group throughout next week – vs. USA (Aug. 8, 6 p.m.), vs. China (Aug. 10, 9:30 p.m.), vs. France (Aug. 12, 9:30 p.m.) and vs. Australia (Aug. 14, 6 p.m.).

Colmenares, 27, was first named to the Venezuela National Team Roster in 2011 and has played ever since. The Venezuelan National Team played in the 2011 FIBA Americas Championships, finishing fifth with a 4-4 record. In 2013, Venezuela hosted the FIBA Americas and placed fifth once again.
 
Venezuela won its second South American Basketball championship in 2014 and then backed that up with its first-ever FIBA Americas championship last September with a 76-71 win over Argentina.

Team Venezuela is setting an Olympic basketball record with zero NBA roster members on its 12-man club. Greivis Vasquez of the Brooklyn Nets was hoping to make his Olympic debut, but was ruled out by his NBA team doctors one week ago.

Colmenares is only the third-known Campbellsville University alum to qualify and play in the Olympics and second from the country of Venezuela. The late Doris Wefwafwa played volleyball for the Kenyan National Team in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Also, Mickey Lilinthal swam for Venezuela in the 400 free relay in the 1996 Summer Olympics. In addition to the three olympic qualifiers, former Tiger swimmer Brendan Ward made the Zimbabwe Olympic trials but was unable to qualify for the Olympics.

The 6-foot-8 forward played for the Tigers for two years – 2007-08 and 2009-10.
 
After his All-American campaign, Colmenares sat out in 2008-09, but returned where he left off in 2009-10, leading Campbellsville in scoring, rebounding and blocks through the season.He finished the year with 15.6 points per game, 9.9 rebounds per game and 32 blocks en route to being named the Mid-South Conference Player of the Year and First Team All-American for the Sporting News, Basketball Times and the NAIA.
 
Colmenares concluded his two-year career at Campbellsville with 1,095 career points, good for No. 25 on the Tigers' all-time scoring list, which is mainly compiled of three or four-year players.

NBC Olympics presents coverage of the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad from Maracana Stadium on Friday, August 5 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

For complete information on the men's basketball tournament go to - http://results.nbcolympics.com/basketball/event/men/index.html