People may forget the order of the races, or even who won which, but I think we’ll remember Ledecky and Titmus going toe-to-toe. Ledecky capped things off by beating Titmus to win gold in the 800. past the Australians to claim silver, after Titmus had swum their first leg. Then she swam the anchor leg of the 4x200, launching the U.S. Then she won the 200, with Ledecky finishing off the podium.Īfter that, Ledecky came back to win the 1,500 later that night (a race Titmus didn’t enter). Titmus won gold in their first showdown, the 400-meter freestyle, and it added a charge of drama to the pool each night, knowing the invincible Ledecky could be beaten (though close observers knew how formidable Titmus would be in that in race). Ledecky was not as dominant in 2020, though she was still very successful, winning two golds and two silvers.īut sometimes we remember an athlete because of a foe they are linked to, and Titmus proved to be a worthy adversary. Our lasting images from Rio are not of her being surrounded by the world’s best swimmers, but of her on the other side of the pool, finished, waiting for them to catch up. Ledecky was singular and incredible in 2016. And he will be an even bigger name when he gets there.Ħ. Dressel is only 24 years old, which means he will have a chance to climb even higher on all sorts of career record lists in Paris. But he was truly great enough to be remembered for both his own accomplishments and for grabbing the torch from his predecessor. He stepped in and established his own legacy.
He answered the call by taking on an ambitious racing schedule, winning five gold medals, and setting two world records and two other Olympic records. Dressel was given a nearly impossible task: Succeed Michael Phelps as the greatest male American swimmer at the Olympics. One remaining question, in the aftermath of so many teenagers on the skateboarding podium: Will we see them replaced by even younger teenagers or will this first crop stick around until, say, Brisbane 2032?ĥ. But if those four sports remain in the Games long-term, they may all be remembered together and the distinction could be lost.Īnyway, as the Olympics tries to evolve and grow its audience, these Games definitely gave us some new sports that breathed some life into things. The other new sport in Tokyo was 3x3 basketball, which is technically a core sport now and was not chosen by Japan’s organizing committee.
The other two are karate (which I don’t think we’ll see for a while) and baseball/softball (which will not return in Paris but will be a top contender for future Olympics). I think they all have staying power beyond that, and we may remember these three joining as a block. Sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing all seemed pretty well received, from I could tell, and will all be back in Paris come 2024. I think these Olympics will be remembered both for putting that innovative idea in place, and for the actual sports that made their debuts. This edition saw an expanded list of sports, with five chosen by the host country, a precedent that will continue moving forward. But no one who lived through these times will ever forget.Ĥ. Or maybe they just didn’t want to spend money on new signage.
It feels like an effort to make us forget what happened when, decades from now, we look back at lists of Olympics and their corresponding years. The IOC continued to call them the 2020 Olympics, even though 2020 ended more than seven months ago. They were held in a state of emergency, in a country whose citizens mostly didn’t want them. These will always be the Pandemic Olympics. 1 story on earth the last 18 months is unavoidable on a list like this. Here are 10 things I think we as a collective group will remember about the 2020* Olympics.ġ. So what will stand out five or 25 years after the strangest, least-watched Olympics of my lifetime? We can’t answer for sure, but I think we have a pretty good idea. But sometimes it’s just the novel and the strange. All-time great athletes and legendary performances, sure.
0 kommentar(er)
