The Most Memorable Moments of the Tokyo Olympics
By Space Coast Daily // August 12, 2021
The Tokyo Summer Olympics have already gone down in sports history because of their uniqueness. In addition, millions of sport sans call the Tokyo Olympics the most unusual among all Games ever seen, since the beginning of the last century.
Who is the winner?
The US team took first place in the medal rating. American athletes have won 39 gold medals and much more silver and bronze ones. China has won 38 gold medals. Also Japan, Great Britain and athletes from Russia took their places in the ranking of the best countries as well.
In total, almost 340 sets of awards were played during the Olympics. The number of sports disciplines was the highest in the history of the Games – 33 basic sports disciplines.
According to LionTips analysts, the medal statistics coincided with the experts’ predictions. Sports experts assumed that the first places in the overall standings would be shared by China and the United States. Russian athletes were expected to earn more awards, but for them the Tokyo Olympics were the worst in 100 years – 5th place in gold medal rating.
Unusual date and time
The Tokyo Olympics were supposed to take place a year ago – in 2020. However, due to the pandemic, it was decided to postpone the sporting event. By the way, the Olympics in Japan became the first Olympics in history, which was postponed, and not completely canceled.
Sports Committee also decided not to change the name of the Olympics. Although, in fact, it took place this year, and not in 2020.
Due to epidemiological restrictions, competitions in Tokyo were held without spectators. This is also a unique experience for the organizers, since before all the Olympiads were attended by fans and guests from different countries.
New sports
The Tokyo Olympics was the first Olympiad to arrange a competition for rock climbing, skateboarding and karate. In addition, baseball and surfing were included in the Summer Olympics program for the first time.
New horizons for athletes
What’s more, 142 LGBT athletes and a transgender weightlifter who was a man and had a gender change several years ago took part in the Olympics as well.
The Tokyo Games also became a unique one because of the age diversity. The youngest participant in the Games was only 11 years old, and the oldest was 66 years old. An athlete from Great Britain became the first athlete to win a bronze medal at the age of 13.
One of the gymnasts came to Tokyo for her 8th Olympics in a row. She participated in the Games back in 1992. Now she is 46 years old. Nevertheless, she didn’t win any medals, she showed good results in Tokyo.
In individual competitions two medals were won by the brother and sister. Both of them are from Japan. To add, they won their competition with a time difference of only 30 minutes.
New Countries with Medals
The Tokyo Olympics have become a unique competition for several countries at once. For example, for the Maldives and San Marino. For the first time in history, participants from these countries won medals in their sports. The first-ever gold appeared in the Philippines. Congratulations to the winners.
