Although this was originally written several years earlier, I do want to post it again. With Tokyo cancelling the Olympics for 2020, we can look back to see what all happened during the Rio Olympics.
Rio Olympics has been a huge controversial topic along with the usual entertainment and eyes glued on the TV. With the Zika and crime worries its hard to keep up with everything that is going on. So here is a list of 100 things that you may have missed.
1. First Time in South America – Why? The biggest reason is the seasons. Since Olympics are held in Summer/Winter, the Southern hemisphere has the opposite seasons. In fact, this is only the third time Olympics have been held south of the equator. So if you think about it…..
2. Summer Olympics happened in the winter
3. Zika Virus – Everyone knows about the Zika Virus by now, causing the same kind of panic as the bird flu and swine flu. This caused a few people skipping Olympics including the top golfers. But surprisingly Zika wasn’t that big of an issue compared to the other problems in Brazil.
4. Security in Brazil – According to BBC, Brazil hired 85,000 security members. Days leading up to the events showed Brazilian police and military informing people that they do not get paid and they could not protect everyone.
3. Fears of water – Weeks before the Olympics, studies showed that the water in Brazil was “1.7 million times the levels that would be worrisome in the United States” (Independent) Swimmers would only need to ingest a few teaspoons before getting bacterial or viral infections.
4. 206 countries/teams participated
5. Refugee team – Using the Olympic flag, there were 5 from South Sudan, 2 from Democratic Republic of Congo, 2 from Syria, and 1 from Ethiopia
6. The President? – Olympics opened included stand-in president Michel Temer with Dilma Rouseff famously being impeached
7. Tonga Man – Remember when everyone was wondering who this guy was? Pita Nikolas Taufatofua competed in taekwondo.
8. New events – included golf, sevens rugby, and kitesurfing. (Rory McIlroy dropped because of Zika concerns)
9. New events for 2020 – IOC approved baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing for even more exciting Olympic games.
10. The horrifying broken leg – French gymnast, Samir Ait Said, broke his leg on vault during qualifications. If you want to watch click here. But gotta warn you, it’s pretty graphic.
11. The bike crash – Also another terrible injury happening just before winning gold, Annemeik Van Vleuten, crashed on her bicycle. Other athletes have also blamed the streets designated for biking in the Olympics unsafe and “beyond technical”. She suffered a concussion and fractures in her spine. Watch the video here.
12. Mascot Vinicius – The mascot of the Rio Olympics is a mix of different animals and is named after the musician Vinicius de Moraes.
13 Refugee Ysura Mardini – One of the most spectacular stories is of 18 year old Ysura from the Refugee Team. While her and her sister were fleeing Syria, they swam and pushed the boat with a failed motor for three hours saving several lives.
14. USA entrants 556 – With a team that size, its no wonder USA pulls more medals than other countries
15. Giselle Bündchen – Strutted in the Opening Ceremony to represent her home country
16. Paul Hunt – It was not part of Rio but you definitely need to watch.
17. Hassan Saadu and Jonas Junias Jonas, both boxers, were arrested for sexual assault.
18. The Dick, The Dick II – In Gymnastics, if you create a new move you get to have it named after you and it may be even more rewarding than a medal. Marisa Dick of Trinidad and Tobago created a new move involving a switch split onto the balance beam….Named The Dick, and the tweaked version named The Dick II
19. Xuan Vinh Hoang – Sports shooter who won the first gold medal for Vietnam was an army colonel
20. @riokayaksofa – Aside from the bacteria infested waters, a kayak has reportedly capsized from hitting a couch starting a twitter troll by the couch itself
21. Andreas Toba fights through the pain – Toba, a gymnast from Germany tore his ACL during floor routines. When people thought he was done, he surprised us all by competing through the pommel horse through the pain.
22. Robbed?! The biggest story in Rio. Ryan Lochte getting “robbed”. By now everyone knows what actually happened. But real robberies happened involving other athletes, media crew, and even a Portuguese Politician
23. Troubles with Israel – Even with the hope of putting race and differences aside, some countries still had bias against Israelis. This included the Lebanese refusing to ride on the bus with Israelis and a Saudi skipping his match to avoid a future fight with an Israeli. El Shahaby (Egyptian) was also sent home for not shaking hands with his opponent
24. NBC Coverage – NBC got a lot of grief due to the poor coverage and the wonky televised schedules
25. Cupping – People were mesmerized by the purple spots on athletes from the controversial practice of cupping.
26. Adam Peaty – British Swimmer, Adam Peaty (GB, 21), breaks his own breaststroke world record
27. John Kerry and his Pokemon Go – Secretary of State was caught playing Pokemon Go at the Olympic games
28. Oksana Chusovitina. At 41 years old, people can’t believe that she’s still competing in gymnastics. This is her 7th Olympics and in the span of her career. She has represented 3 different countries.
29. Bad Omens – The media housing was allegedly built on slave burial sites.
30. Condoms – With the combat of STD’s and Zika at least 450,000 condoms were passed out, or in other words, 42 condoms per athlete.
31. Condom Man.
32. Almost $12 billion USD was spent on venues. That’s a lot of money spent from a country that doesn’t have much to spend.
33. Open the Gates – Keys were lost to the Olympic Stadium. Embarrassing! They had to open by using bolt cutters.
34. Friend or Foe – This touching photo shows a South Korean and North Korean posing for a selfie together amid tensions back home.
35. Water scare – When everyone wondered what was wrong with the water turning green overnight.
36. The Star, Simone Biles. Everyone was cheering for Biles and she did terrific taking home several golds.
37. Simon Biles parents – Controversy rose around comments about her parents not being her real parents. She was legally adopted by her maternal grandparents
38. Michael Phelps – Phelps, not surprisingly, took home more gold medals making his total count 23 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze.
39. Joseph Schooling – (Singapore) overtook childhood hero, Phelps, and won Gold in 100m butterfly
40. Who had the best face? Remember the viral Aly Raisman face last Olympics? Michael Phelps got his own viral face picture and there were plenty of new ones in Rio
41. The Phelps Stretch – This went viral with people taking pictures of themselves stretching. With an 80 inch arm span, its not as hard as it looks.
42. BBC Olympic body match -A cool BBC page (taken down) lets you enter your height, weight, and age to find out which athletes are similar to you. Perhaps they will make another one for Tokyo 2020.
43. Flavia Saraiva – 16-year-old Brazilian gymnast weighs 31 kg (68lbs) and is 133 cm (4’3″) making her the most petite entrant.
44. Li Muhao – 24-year-old basketball player from China measures at 218 cm (7’1″)
45. Daniel Natea – This judo contender from Romania weighs in at 170 kg (374 lbs)
46. USA Womens Gymnastics – They were spectacular and we were not all that surprised. But the most surprising is the fact that USA broke the record for the biggest point margin of 5.066! One of them could have just done a somersault on the mat and they still would have won.
47. Deng Wei – Chinese weightlifter broke the world record Held by Taiwans Lin Tzu-chi who was not allowed to compete because of failing a doping test
48. Santo Condorelli – To many people’s surprise, Santo flipped the bird before the race. Then we found out he gives his dad the finger for good luck and his dad returns it. Kind of endearing, right?
49. King vs Efimova – Lilly King was not afraid to voice her opinions about Russian swimmer, Yulia Effimova, for being banned because of doping. Although she was banned, somehow the reigning committees let her back in to compete.
50. Fu Yuanhui – The character we have all come to love for her enthusiasm and her realness.
51. Canadian chest bump – Maybe handshakes are better
52. Don’t forget the fans
53. Zahra Nemati – Iranians flag bearer was confined to a wheelchair. Before a car accident, she competed in taekwondo and now is an archer with a gold from London Olympics
54. Ryan Murphy’s dreams – This paper Murphy drew up when he was 8
55. Philippine diving team – When people were upset why they didn’t go to Olympics. If you want some real class entertainment…
56. Media bus shot – With the crime so high in Rio, it’s not surprising that the media bus and tents got shot at
57. Katie Ledecky – With 5 Olympic golds and several broken records Katie is a popular lady and everyone wants pictures with her. Below are pictures of young Katie before the fame posing with Michael Phelps and Michael Jordan.
58. Figi Rugby – Fiji won its first ever Olympic medal and it happened to be gold. Fiji team came back to a national holiday because of the win.
59. First Gold Medals – These countries won their first ever gold this year. Fiji, Vietnam, Bahrain, IOA (Kuwait), Côte d’Ivoire, Jordan, Kosovo, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Tajikstan, and Vietnam.
60. 1000th gold medal – While some countries are celebrating their first Gold medal. USA is celebrating their 1000th gold won by the women’s relay in swimming.
61. Simone Manuel – The first African American to win a gold medal in an individual swimming event. She tied with Penny Oleksiak, both beating the previous record holder.
62. Dipa Karmakar – The first Indian woman to qualify for Olympic gymnastics. Even though she didn’t medal, She has touched her native people by not only finishing fourth but doing one of the most difficult vaults.
63. Trash boxes – we already know Rio wasn’t the cleanest, but when the trash cans with two sides (one for recycle and one for trash) go into one trash bag, we know that won’t change anytime soon
64. Boxing rules – Boxing Rules have changed and people are not happy. Michael Conlan, who most agreed should have won his joust against Russia was justifiably fuming. The problems weren’t only from the Conlan fight but from others as well. Boxing undeniably has the most problems when it comes to scoring because there is not always a clear winner like what you would see from running and swimming.
65. Russian Doping – The biggest story pre-Olympics were the Russian bans because of doping. 111 contenders were removed from the roster and all were removed from Paralympics.
66. Phelps golds – We already know Phelps has tons of gold medals, but what if he was a country? He would come in 39th for most golds
67. Housing Inspections – Less than half of housing in Olympic Village passed failed housing inspections. Single beds, plumbing problems, stopping elevators, the list goes on… Australia recognized these problems and moved all their people into hotels.
68. #rioproblems was the trending hashtag and for very good reason.
69. Serena and Venus Williams – the US tennis pros were disappointed in the Olympic turn out this year to say the least.
70. Gaurika Singh – 13 year old Nepalese swimmer and earthquake survivor was the youngest to participate this year.
71. Julie Brougham – The oldest to participate in Rio was a 62 year old equestrian from New Zealand.
72. Etimoni Timuani – He represented Tuvalu…..by himself
73. 42 42 42 – There was a short time period where USA had 42 medals of each color in Rio
74. Cultural differences – This amazing shot of the differences between different cultures all competing in the same sports
75. Hope Solo – The media exploded with Hope Solo’s outcries over Zika and calling the Swedish soccer team cowards resulting in her 6 month suspension back in the US.
76. Marriage – We witnessed a handful of proposals in Rio. Isadora Cerullo (Rugby) was proposed to by longtime partner, Marjorie Enya. Charlotte Dujardin (Dressage) won her second gold as her fiancee held up a sign in the crowd. He Zi (Diver, silver medal) was proposed to her boyfriend of six years. (Many called the act sexist and said that he stole the medalist spotlight) Tom Bosworth (walker) was proposed to by his boyfriend on the beach. William Claye (men’s jump, silver) proposed to his girlfriend (USA athlete).
77. Ukrainian gymnastics team – Fans were upset with the Ukrainian team after them seeming to give up by touching the bars then finishing. Apparently, their explanation afterward was that one of them had an injury and it was too late to change the line-up.
78. Phelps announces his retirement
79. Gabby Douglas – Part of the USA women’s Gymnastics team and star of 2012 Olympics, she got a lot of guff from press when she didn’t put her hand over her heart for the anthem on accident. Of course now its completely overshadowed by NFL players not standing for the anthem.
80. Simone Biles and Zac Efron – after admitting to a super crush and cardboard cutout of Zac Efron, Simone Biles got a HUGE surprise
81. Life guards – The most useless jobs at the Olympics. You can definitely tell how much fun they’re not having
82. Brownlee Brothers – Alistair Brownlee got his gold in the triathlon followed by his brother Jonny Brownlee
83. Renaud Lavillenie – This poor French pole vaulter was booed by the audience while competing against the Brazillian counterpart. Brazillian fans have been called out by the Olympic Commitee for being rude and unsportsmanlike. Lavillenie won silver and was in tears as the onlookers booed him while on the podium.
84. David Katoatau – One of the more entertaining parts was Katoatau. He didn’t get a medal but he sure looked excited to compete.
85. Wayde van Niekerk – This South African runner shattered the 17 year world record for the 400m coached by his 74 year old great grandmother
86. Double Double – Mo Farah retained his two previous golds in the 5,000m and 10,000m
87. Triple Triple – One of the biggest and hyped up stories in Rio was Usain Bolt’s “Triple Triple”. Winning gold in the 100m, 200m, and 100m relay for three Olympics straight Usain bolt has reason to be cocky with his viral image.
88. Laurine van Riessen – also has an outstanding image when avoiding a serious crash
89. Mariya Semenya – Semenya was part of a controversial topic when people realized how broad her shoulders were, narrow hips, Adams apple, and deep voice. Although identifying as a woman, Semenya has an advantage with extremely high testosterone levels, leading other women athletes to complain about how it was unfair.
90. Diving (not in the water) – Shaunae Miller (Bahamas) dived in front of the favored Allison Felix (USA) and won gold. Fans cried foul saying diving shouldn’t be allowed. Most people don’t realize that USA did it back in 2008 and beat Bahamas that way….
91. Olympic Spirit – After a collision runners, Nikki Hamblin (NZ) and Abbey D’Agostino (USA), helped each other across the finish line
92. Laura Trott and Jason Kenny – Most of us all know #couplegoals and this is it. This cycling couple has a combined five golds
93. Meet your heroes first – This might actually be a thing now. Just as young Ledecky and Schooling met Phelps, Laura Trott met Bradley Wiggins when he won in Athens.
94. Rafaela Silva – A native of the slums in Rio, this gold medalist in judo proved to everyone that there can be a true Cinderella story.
95. The North and the South – Remember that selfie with the two Korean Nations. It was taken with the South Koreans phone, mainly because North Korea refused to use the complimentary Samsung phones.
96. Team GB – Team GB means Great Britain, but many have asked why not team UK. The reason explained here.
97. Inspiration – When you say Bolt is just built for running, then you find out he has scoliosis and that he has never run a mile.
98. Laurie Hernandez – A newcomer to the USA Olympic Gymnastics team, Hernandez won gold in beam. Simone Biles lost her balance and received silver.
99. Rio’s Paralympics are the biggest.
100. TOKYO 2020 – Marking the preparations for next year, Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe came out of a green tube dressed as Mario. People have speculated that he is possibly dropping hints as to the theme of the next Olympics in Japan.
