The 2016 Olympics in Rio have definitely been one for the books. From Michael Phelps story, Usain Bolt records and Neymar’s achievement with Brazil, there have been lots of exciting moments worth remembering. Here, we take a look back at some of the best and memorable moments at Rio.
Phelps success story
Michael Phelps is a story of enduring class. He had skipped both the 2013 and 2015 World Championships, but on his return to the world stage at the age of 31, he was back to his best.
Some detractors have suggested that Phelps is only as widely and loudly celebrated as he is because swimming offers so many events, while track athletes have comparatively fewer opportunities to win gold.
But to make this accusation is to confuse the number of events in which Phelps excels, with the number of events the typical elite swimmer can win.
Despite sitting out the last two World Championships, the “Baltimore Bullet” has 28 golds in individual events at elite level. Ryan Lochte, a former reality-television star, is second, with 12, and the average number of world and Olympic titles won by male swimmers with at least one gold by the age of 31 is just 2.2.
In short, Phelps’s gold medal-winning trajectory makes it look like he is taking part in a different sport. Great swimmers are usually world class in one stroke. If it’s the right stroke, they might win the medley, too. But Phelps has multiple individual golds in butterfly, freestyle and medley (plus a silver in backstroke at the 2006 Pan- Pacific Championships).
Phelps cemented his status as the most successful Olympian of all time by winning five golds and one silver at Rio 2016, taking his tally to 28 medals (23 gold). The one that seemed to mean the most to the great American swimmer was the 200m butterfly. It allowed him to avenge his London 2012 defeat by Chad le Clos, who had since said he would break Phelps’s world records in Rio, and Phelps’s celebrations afterwards suggested he had enjoyed putting the younger man in his place. A very honourable mention also goes to Phelps’s compatriot Katie Ledecky, who won four gold and a silver at Rio 2016, setting new world records in the 400m and 800m freestyle events.
Bolt ‘triple-triple’ record
Once attention moved from the swimming pool to the athletics track at the midpoint of the Rio Games, there was no question who would be the star. Bolt completes ‘triple-triple’ He was the man of the Games, from the moment he touched down at Rio International Airport, until he completed an unprecedented ‘triple-triple’ by winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles at a third successive Olympics. He charmed Brazil and its people, and when he said “I’m the greatest” it was impossible to disagree.
Like Phelps, Bolt now stands ahead of any other sprinter before him in terms of the number of elite international gold medals he has in individual events.
The only other who comes close to Bolt for weight of gold medals is Carl Lewis, whose raw speed allowed him to win gold for the US in not only the 100m and 200m, but also four consecutive Olympic titles in the long jump. If that combination sounds like something that could only happen in a previous era, think again: Tianna Bartoletta won gold in the women’s 4x100m and long jump in Rio.
But as with Phelps, we should probably be adjusting for medal inflation. The World Athletics Championships started later than their aquatic cousin, and only in 2001 became the regular, biennial event we know today.
Neymar breaks Brazil Olympics football jinx
Brazil get the gold they really wanted. Anyone who doubted the value of Olympic football just needed to look at Neymar’s face after he scored the winning penalty in the final against Germany. The Barcelona star had delivered a national obsession and helped, in some small way; avenge the terrible 7-1 defeat at the 2014 World Cup.
ANTHONY NLEBEM
