Comité Olímpico Paraguayo sent the nation's largest delegation to the Games since the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona due to the presence of the men's football team.

The Paraguayan team featured two notable female athletes: javelin thrower Leryn Franco, who aspired to be one of the most beautiful women to compete at the Olympics because of her professional career as a model and beauty contestant, and single sculls rower Rocio Rivarola, aged seventeen, who later became the nation's first ever female flag bearer in the opening ceremony.

[1] Paraguay left Athens with its first Olympic silver medal from the men's football team, following its defeat against Argentina with a score of 0–1 in the final match of the tournament.

[3][4] Paraguay national football team faced a stiff test in order to qualify for the Athens Games, getting two goals in the last ten minutes to beat Chile, and edging Brazil to qualify out of South America, along with Argentina.

[5] On 4 August, before the Summer Olympics began, Paraguay measured against the Portugal of Cristiano Ronaldo in the city of Algarve, resulting in a 5–0 defeat.