Friday, March 29, 2024

The Tokyo Olympics is over and the United States tops the medal list

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Eliud Kipchoge held a marathon master class. With the conclusion of the biggest sporting event since the pandemic on Sunday, the United States leads China in the Tokyo Olympic medal list.

After Kipchoge won the marathon championship for Kenya, the United States won volleyball, track cycling and basketball, ranking first with 39 gold medals, only one ahead of China.

The 339th and final gold medal was won by the Serbian men’s water polo team, which put an end to the serious danger of cancellation last year as the first postponed Olympic Games.

33 sports were played in a largely empty stadium within 16 days, fans were banned due to the risk of coronavirus, and athletes lived under strict biosafety conditions.

“Some people are already talking about the’Ghost Games’,” Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said at an IOC meeting before the closing ceremony on Sunday.

“What we see here is that, on the contrary, athletes bring soul to the Olympics.”

The Olympics were plagued by Japan’s low support rate because they were worried that they would become a super-spreader event, but officials insisted that a record 27 gold medals put Japan in third place and won the hearts of the people.

“We believe that the seriousness and dedication of our athletes impressed people,” said Fukui, the head of the Japanese team.

The United Kingdom won fourth place with 22 gold medals, and the Russian Olympic Committee won fifth place with 20 gold medals after the Russian Olympic Committee was suspended in Russia for systemic doping.

A series of big names failed to perform in Japan, and new sports skateboarding, surfing, sports climbing and karate made young stars stand out.

But the marathon world record holder Kipchoge showed off his class, played in the final stage and kept the championship title he won in 2016 with a time of 2 hours, 08 minutes and 38 seconds.

“I know that many people are opposed to hosting this Olympics because of the coronavirus,” said a 47-year-old fan waving a flag on the marathon route named Tsujita.

“But I’m glad it happened. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for everyone.”

In order to avoid the summer heat in Tokyo, the marathon moving north to Sapporo is one of the few events that allows spectators to participate.

Sunday’s closing ceremony was held at the Olympic Stadium without spectators, bringing an end to an extraordinary Olympic Games that was held mainly for billions of TV viewers around the world.

Concerns about a pandemic among most vaccinated Olympic athletes and officials proved to be unfounded. During the Olympics, 430 cases were detected, 32 of which occurred in the Olympic Village.

But athletes are under the additional pressure of strict “bubble” conditions and are required to obey orders to wear masks unless they are playing, training, eating or sleeping.

The celebration of victory has always been low-key, with only a lonely circle of honor and a medal ceremony rarely attended. But the emotions of competitors have been fully demonstrated.

Superstar gymnast Simone Byers provided the most jaw-dropping moment when she suddenly withdrew from the competition because of a “distortion”, which is a puzzling mental disorder.

Byers is recognized as the greatest gymnast in history. He recovered well enough to return to the last event, the beam, and won the bronze medal.

Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard became the first openly transgender woman to participate in the Olympics, and Quinn of Canada became the first openly transgendered Olympic medalist to win a gold medal in a women’s football game.

Among other highlights, the American men’s team won the men’s basketball championship for the fourth consecutive time. American swimmer Caleb Drexel won five gold medals in the pool to replace Michael Phelps.

In Sunday’s final, Canadian cyclist Kelsey Mitchell won the gold medal in the women’s sprint competition, and Jason Kenny won the men’s Kelin Championship, becoming the first Englishman to win a seven-athlete Olympic championship.

The Americans were two gold medals behind China at the beginning of the first day, but the women’s basketball and volleyball champions and the all-around victory of American track and field cyclist Jennifer Valente put them at the top of the final table.

Bahodir Jaloloff of Uzbekistan defeated American boxer Richard Torrez in the super heavyweight boxing final, as did Lauren Price of the United Kingdom and Kylie Harrington of Ireland. Won the gold medal in the boxing match.

The Olympic flag will now be passed to the host Paris in 2024. However, when Beijing faces a boycott threat and a new coronavirus emergency, the Olympic circus will reconvene the February Winter Olympics in just six months.


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