THE OLYMPIC GAMES
The Olympic Games congregate the most talented athletes worldwide to compete in a friendly and peaceful way. During the first modern Olympic Games (1896), 241 athletes from 14 nations competed in Athletics (track and field), cycling, fencing, gymnastics, sailing and rowing, swimming, tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling; the USA dominated the event with a total of eleven gold, seven silver, and two bronze medals.
Since then, the games have been canceled only four times (1916, 1940, 1944, and 2020), being the most recent time, the first opportunity in which the event was canceled due to health safety.
125 years after the first games, every country is participating (including a refugee team) in 46 different sports.
THE HIGH LEVEL
The physical level of each one of the athletes is simply superb. Several world records were broken in the 2020 Olympics:
Athletics
- Women’s 100 meters: Elaine Thompson-Herah (Jamaica) – 10.61 seconds
- Women’s 400 meters hurdles: Sydney McLaughlin (USA) – 51.46 seconds
- Men’s 400 meters hurdles: Karsten Warholm (Norway) – 45.94 seconds
- Women’s triple jump: Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela) – 15.67 meters
- Mixed 4 × 400 meters relay: Poland – 3:09.87
- Women’s 100 meters hurdles: Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Puerto Rico) – 12.26 seconds
- Women’s 200 meters: Christine Mboma (Namibia) – 21.81 seconds
- Men’s shot put: Ryan Crouser (USA) – 23.30 meters
- Women’s 1500 meters: Faith Kipyegon (Kenya) – 3:53.11
- Men’s 1500 meters: Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway) – 3:28.32
Swimming
- Men’s 100 meters butterfly: Caeleb Dressel (USA) – 49.45 seconds
- Men’s 4×100 meters medley relay: USA team – 3:26.78
Weightlifting
- Women’s 87 kg: Wang Zhouyu (China) – 270 kg total
Archery
- Women’s individual ranking round: An San (South Korea) – 680 points
Canoe Sprint
- Women’s K-1 200 meters: Lisa Carrington (New Zealand) – 38.127 seconds
Track Cycling
- Women’s team sprint: Bao Shanju, Zhong Tianshi (China) – 31.804 seconds
- Women’s team pursuit: Franziska Brauße, Lisa Brennauer, Lisa Klein, Mieke Kröger (Germany) – 4:04.242
- Men’s team pursuit: Simone Consonni, Filippo Ganna, Francesco Lamon, Jonathan Milan (Italy) – 3:42.032
Rowing (World’s Best)
- Men’s quadruple sculls: Dirk Uittenbogaard, Abe Wiersma, Tone Wieten, Koen Metsemakers (Netherlands) – 5:32.03
- Women’s quadruple sculls: Chen Yunxia, Zhang Ling, Lü Yang, Cui Xiaotong (China) – 6:05.13
- Men’s lightweight double sculls: Fintan McCarthy, Paul O’Donovan (Ireland) – 6:05.33
- Women’s lightweight double sculls: Valentina Rodini, Federica Cesarini (Italy) – 6:41.36
INTERESTING FACT ON THE 2024 OLYMPICS
One remarkable aspect of the 2024 Paris Olympics is the debut of breaking, commonly known as breakdancing, as an official Olympic sport. This dynamic and expressive dance form, which originated in the Bronx in the 1970s, will feature 16 male and 16 female competitors, known as B-Boys and B-Girls, respectively. They will compete in a series of one-on-one battles judged on creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity, and musicality1. This inclusion marks a significant cultural milestone, bringing a unique blend of athleticism and artistry to the global stage.
THE 5 RINGS
Some athletes proudly exhibit a tattoo of the logo, celebrating their participation in the games. The 5-ring logo is as recognizable as the logo of Nike, McDonald’s, or Coca-Cola, but many people are unaware of its meaning.
Pierre de Courbetin (France) designed the image 24 years after the first games.
Mr. Courbetin was also the founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The image of the five interlaced rings represents the union of the five continents, but that’s where things can start getting tricky. Anybody who attended school in an English-speaking country after 1960 was taught that the continents were 7 (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Antarctica). Still, since there is no universal definition of a continent, they are arranged differently according to different areas of the world.
For many, a continent is an immense landmass surrounded by water (like a massive island), but that would point to a total of four continents (America, Africa+Asia+Europe, Oceania, and Antarctica). Although Egypt connects Africa and Asia, for most countries, those are two separate continents; and for some, Europe and Asia are one continent called Eurasia. Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia, and Armenia, have their territory in Asia and Europe.
It is not right or wrong about the number of continents, it all depends on the country that is counting and naming them since there is no global agreement on the topic.
Being from France, the world according to Mr. Courbetin is divided into Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, that’s why he opted for the 5 rings and assigned the colors black, red, yellow, green, and blue to represent each continent.