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The Olympics are the most important stage in world sports activities and entice probably the most media of any organized competitors on the planet. The Video games of the XXXII Olympiad return this week and shall be held in Tokyo. After the 2020 Video games had been delayed a yr due the continuing COVID-19 world pandemic, it was decided that the Olympics can be pushed again no additional.
The Video games are scheduled to function 339 occasions in 33 sports activities. As is the case with each Olympics, the storylines are plentiful. We’re right here to present you an advance information of what to know earlier than the opening ceremony occurs Friday.
Listed below are 10 plot factors to observe for what shall be a extremely publicized, and inevitably debatable, Video games.
1. COVID-19 hovers over every thing
As if any story might be greater than the most important scenario to afflict the whole planet in many years. In Japan, COVID-19 circumstances are greater than they have been in six months, and athletes have been affected. On the American finish, tennis participant Coco Gauff announced Sunday she tested positive and would not be able to compete. In girls’s gymnastics, an alternate on the team has tested positive and another has been put into contact-tracing protocols. A employee within the Olympic Village has additionally examined constructive.
This case could worsen, and there isn’t any telling who might have their eligibility compromised. There are large public well being questions, scrutiny over vaccinations, potential forfeitures of competitors by athletes. We already know of 1 high-profile athlete — American swimmer Michael Andrew — who is not vaccinated and is due to this fact rising his threat of disqualification. The identical goes for American track athlete Cole Hocker.
With no followers in attendance, the 2021 Video games are being placed on purely as a TV present (which is generally what the Olympics has advanced into over the previous 20 years). The coronavirus pandemic will hover over each component, each day, and almost each second of the Video games because of the state-of-emergency circumstances in Japan. You will not see followers within the stands, and it is all too straightforward, sadly, to check a state of affairs wherein athletes wind up being disqualified attributable to constructive assessments. Even the medal ceremonies shall be completely different this time round: as an alternative of the custom of a medalist bending right down to be wreathed with their prize, the gold, silver and bronze winners shall be grabbing their medals themselves and putting them on.
Whereas American sports activities have efficiently pulled off main occasions — the NBA Finals in a bubble, the Super Bowl within the thick of winter, and multi-week males’s and girls’s NCAA Tournaments in managed environments — the Olympics dwarfs all of these occasions. Contemplating Japan’s vaccination charge, and its state-of-emergency declaration, the variety of individuals working and competing within the Video games and the contagiousness of the Delta variant, these Olympic Video games characterize the most important sporting occasion the planet has taken on amid COVID-19.
A majority of Japanese citizens do not even want the Games to go on, however with billions of {dollars} at stake, Olympics officers have determined the present will go on.
2. The Simon Biles present
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When it comes to American Olympians in 2021, Biles is the most important deal, probably the most well-known athlete, probably the most dominant competitor and, on the age of 24, already one of many biggest athletes on the earth. She’s one of the spectacular athletes in Olympic/American historical past and owns 4 gold medals and took a bronze in 2016.
She shall be must-see TV in each occasion she competes in. These occasions are prone to be:
- Staff competitors
- Particular person all-around
- Vault
- Ground train
- Stability beam
If Biles medals in 4 extra occasions, she’s probably the most embellished gymnast in Olympic historical past. Biles is generational not solely in accomplishments and greatness, however her means to transcend her sport and the Olympics and symbolize American exceptionalism.
She has no peer.
Biles has mainly altered the interpretation of physics in her sport. She has “GOAT” on her leotard, and with good motive. Biles is the uncommon athlete who, within the prime of their profession, is already considered an all-time nice — perhaps the best. These Olympics can solidify that. It speaks to an athlete’s greatness when you think about that, ought to they not wind up successful any occasion they compete in, that will be the most important shock of all. That is Biles’ actuality.
3. Katie Ledecky’s inevitable dominance
For as charming as Biles is, Katie Ledecky might be the extra dominant athlete in her sport attributable to how a lot she’s able to actually distancing herself from the competitors. Over the subsequent two weeks, Ledecky will certifiably change Michael Phelps because the face of American swimming.
Like Biles, Ledecky is 24. She’s competing in her third Video games and is predicted to win gold within the:
- 200 meter freestyle
- 400 meter freestyle
- 800 meter freestyle
- 1,500 meter freestyle
Her greatest occasion, the 1,500 meter freestyle, is new to the Video games this yr. She’ll additionally swim within the 4 × 200 freestyle relay and, doubtlessly, the 4 x 100 freestyle relay.
The query is not whether or not she’ll win, it is whether or not she’ll beat all her opponents by a minimum of a pool-length. Swimming can so usually be a sport of inches and half-seconds, however Ledecky has turned the tide solely. She’s made swimming a spectacle of gawk attributable to her dominance.
There’s by no means been a feminine swimmer as quick as her, on the entire, within the occasions she’s competing in. These Video games are successfully the second the place Ledecky can cement her standing as an all-time Olympic legend.
4. Will Staff USA males’s hoops crew falter?
Just about the one factor that might gin up extra curiosity in the US males’s crew upfront of the Olympics occurred. Staff USA misplaced back-to-back video games in opposition to Nigeria and Australia earlier in July. Irrespective of that these two international locations have NBA gamers dotted all through the roster. It is basketball. It is Staff USA.
Losses aren’t speculated to occur.
In truth, the US took two losses — complete — in worldwide play from 1992 till June of 2021. Then it misplaced two video games in lower than per week.
Clearly, Staff USA — led by Kevin Durant — are heavy favorites to win the gold in Tokyo. But there’s been stumbles alongside the way in which. Bradley Beal and Kevin Love had been cycled off the roster and changed by … uh … says right here … JaVale McGee and Keldon Johnson? No, Zion Williamson is not on the roster. Except for Durant, the most important names are Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, Draymond Green, Devin Booker and Khris Middleton.
Both means, getting knocked off twice within the lead-up to the Olympics will present drama and a motive to observe. The ladies’s nationwide crew ought to as soon as once more trounce to a gold. That shall be satisfying. However on the lads’s facet, no, the world has not caught up on the hardwood with our greatest in basketball. However it’s not a walkover; removed from it.
The query was not whether or not or not the lads would win, however by what number of factors. Now it is an intriguing query: How a lot hazard is the US males’s crew in to not win gold?
5. USA Swimming is stacked … once more
Swimming had all the time been a draw on the Summer time Olympics, however Michael Phelps helped flip it into must-see tv for Individuals. The U.S. ought to carry out nicely in Tokyo, and is predicted to win extra golds and the full medal rely, which has been the case in each Summer time Olympics since 1992. Phelps is the best swimmer in historical past and his teammate Ryan Lochte would simply rank within the high 10.
However their time is over. Listed below are the names to know (moreover the aforementioned Ledecky):
- Simone Manuel: Gained two golds and two silvers in 2016, and made historical past as the primary Black girl to win a 100 meter gold medal. Nonetheless, she did not qualify for that occasion this time, so as an alternative she’ll swim within the dash — the 50 meter freestyle — and look so as to add to her haul.
- Lily King: We’d like extra trash-talking, unabashed swimmers. King is that. She’ll attempt to repeat a gold medal-winning efficiency from 2016 within the 100 meter breaststroke. King may also swim within the 200 meter breaststroke and is prone to be on a relay crew
- Regan Smith: Stanford’s subsequent nice swimmer is competing in her first Olympics and is a transparent risk to medal in each the 100 meter backstroke and the 200 butterfly
- Caeleb Dressel: Dressel is probably going going to be the star of the lads’s squad. He’s a freestyle monster, and he’ll compete in three particular person occasions (100 free, 100 fly, 50 free). He’ll even be on the 4 x 100 free relay, doubtlessly swimming anchor, and have two extra medal alternatives within the 4 x 200 freestyle relay and the combined 4 x 100 medley relay
- Michael Andrew: Ten years in the past he was anticipated to be the next-best factor to Phelps by the point he made the Olympics. That did not come to be, however Andrew has discovered his kind and has an incredible shot to medal within the 100 breast, 200 IM and 50 free
- Chase Kalisz: Gained silver within the 400 meter IM in 2016 and will do it once more. He’ll go in each the 200 meter IM and the 400. At 27, that is his second to capitalize
- Kieran Smith: The proficient swimmer out of the the College of Florida is the darkish horse to emerge as a star in these Video games. These will not be his final Olympics. He’ll paddle within the 200 free, the 400 free and the 4 x 200 free relay
The youngest swimmer on the crew is 15-year-old Katie Grimes. In complete, ten youngsters are part of the lads’s and girls’s groups. The rising star of this group is 18-year-old Torri Huske.
6. USWNT loses for first time in 44 soccer matches, seeks redemption
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The USA girls’s nationwide crew is probably the most dominant feminine soccer enterprise in historical past, however within the occasion you forgot: The U.S. just isn’t the reigning gold medal winner.
Nope.
In 2016, a quarterfinal upset by the hands (toes?) of Sweden led to the U.S. failing to medal in girls’s soccer for the primary time.
The massive names who’re again:
- Megan Rapinoe
- Carli Lloyd
- Alex Morgan
- Julie Ertz
Each Olympian has their very own particular type of motivation, however nearly each sport this crew performs shall be a nationwide motive for rally. And but, the early indicators aren’t encouraging! The U.S. was sideswiped instantly, the sufferer of a 3-0 opening group stage loss in opposition to none apart from — drum roll — Sweden. That is greater than a wakeup name; it is a disturbing flashback to the gorgeous defeat within the 2016 Video games. Two days earlier than the opening ceremony begins, the strain is already on.
7. The 17-year-old who might shine in males’s observe
13 medalists in American observe and subject from the Rio Olympiad will compete in Tokyo. Essentially the most compelling individual on the entire crew was 12 the final time we had an Olympics. His identify is Erriyon Knighton.
The second (or much less) you break a report held by Usain Bolt, you turn into a narrative the world ought to know. And whenever you break two of Bolt’s marks, then the hype finds a rocket. Knighton’s executed simply that. His 20.11-second run in early June within the 200 meters bested Bolt’s under-18 report from 18 years in the past. On the Olympic trials, Knighton improved on his time with a 19.88 run … that he eased up on on the very finish. That dash was higher than Bolt’s report as an under-20-year-old from 2004. Within the last, Knighton crossed in 19.84. Two world junior information.
Can he go even decrease in Tokyo?
Knighton will not flip 18 till January and, perhaps, might be the face of males’s observe and subject for the subsequent decade. His occasions are the 2 most glamorous within the sport: the 100- and 200-meter sprint. He took third within the males’s 200 meters on the Olympic trials in June. In line with USA Observe and Subject, Knighton is the youngest American male to compete in an Olympiad’s observe and subject competitors since 1964. Knighton’s story is all of the extra unbelievable contemplating he didn’t compete in a serious observe competitors till 2019, when he was 15.
The subplot to that is Knighton is approaching because the contemporary younger face, whereas it is Noah Lyles who has been on this place the previous few years within the lead-up to his first Olympics. Lyles ran the quickest time (19.74) at June’s trials, with Kenny Bednarek taking second, Knighton third. The 200 is Lyles’ to lose, however Knighton’s emergence makes for nice theater in the course of the second half of the Olympics’ schedule. The final time an American male received a gold medal within the 200 meters? The 2004 Video games.
8. Sha’Carri Richardson’s ban looms over girls’s observe
Patrick Smith, Getty
It is not even truthful to say that, years from now, we’ll look again on Richardson’s ban on competing within the 2021 Olympics as an outdated, unfair choice. Hundreds of thousands imagine that already. Richardson, who would’ve been a favourite to win gold within the 100, was kept off the US roster due to a positive marijuana test that violated the rules. The story received so huge, even President Biden commented on its unmerited nature.
Richardson deserved higher, and hopefully the 2024 Video games in Paris shall be her wonderful revenge tour.
As for who’s competing this yr for the US on the ladies’s facet, the ageless Allyson Felix is again for her fifth Olympics — an unthinkable achievement for anybody who makes their residing sprinting for a residing. Felix, 35, will run within the 400 meters, making her the oldest American sprinter to compete within the occasion.
One other big-time performer is Sydney McLaughlin, who set a world report within the 400 meter hurdles at trials in June. She’s the most effective at her occasion … except Dalilah Muhammad beats her. That duo is a lock for gold and silver, it appears.
When McLaughlin did this in June, she grew to become the primary girl in historical past to run the 400 hurdles in below 52 seconds.
We have extra, together with a neurobiology main from Harvard who’s mastering in epidemiology. That is Gabby Thomas, who would possibly as nicely characterize what these Olympics are about greater than some other American athlete competing. Her speciality is the 200 meters, and she or he’ll have an incredible shot at taking gold there.
One other acquainted identify in girls’s observe and subject is Brittney Reese, who’s competing in her fourth Olympics and focuses on lengthy soar. She’s taken gold and silver earlier than.
9. The subsequent Jim Thorpe is competing in Tokyo
And that’s JuVaughn Harrison. This can be a comparatively small story, however boy is it a particular one. Harrison did one thing distinctive in fashionable athletics: he received the excessive soar AND the lengthy soar within the U.S. trials. That hasn’t occurred since Jim Thorpe — a person thought-about one of many five-or-so biggest American athletes of the twentieth century — did it in 1912. In order that’s a wow. Harrison will compete in each in Tokyo.
Throughout males’s and girls’s observe and subject there are 13 medal winners from the 2016 Video games who’re again, and 6 athletes who received 2019 phrase championship medals. The USA has a stacked roster on each side and expects to win the gold and general medal rely, simply because it has at each Olympiad since 1984.
10. New sports activities debuting in these Olympics
You are most likely most snug and keen to observe the reliables: swimming, gymnastics, observe and subject and basketball. However for lots, the attraction of the Olympics are the area of interest sports activities, the counterculture of the a lot lesser-heralded competitions that make the Olympics charming.
So, after a 13-year hiatus, baseball and softball are returning. Clearly, Main League Baseball season is ongoing, so the most important stars within the sport won’t be competing within the Olympics.
As for the brand new sports activities, listed here are those making their Olympiad debuts:
- Karate!
- Skateboarding!
- Sport climbing!
- Browsing!
Browsing appears considerably random; in spite of everything, you are depending on the waves, brah. Karate is straight up superior, and sport climbing means Olympians will compete in three disciplines and be judged on the combination of all velocity climbing, lead climbing and bouldering. Ought to be fascinating.
The weirder the sports activities, the higher the Olympics, I say. Can we carry again croquet, individuals? It was final seen within the Olympics in 1900. However 4 new sports activities is a welcomed addition to what would be the most intriguing, and controversial, Olympics — maybe ever.
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