Olympics were a high wire games,
full of challenges and contrasts, abrupt shifts in mood and momentum. It was no
doubt quite a mess backstage and yet quite a spectacle at the front of house.
Best Performances on Land
Bolt. Bolt. It was always Usain
Bolt and he went three for three again in the gold medal department, holding
off the fading threats (Justin Gatlin) and the rising star (Andre De Grasse)
without looking as if he were quite giving it his full attention. Bolt times in
major championships have been increasing for years now.
For the novelty factor and the wow
factor, there was no surpassing American Simone Biles. Even if she was a three
time all round world Champion, she was an Olympic rookie and her explosive and
exuberant brand of gymnastics leapt off any screen in any culture.
Worst Performances on Land
There were no shortages of
candidates, including the loose lipped American goalkeeper Hope Solo but only
one genuine contender Ryan Lochte should definitely have stayed in the pool.
Best Performance in Water
Phelps. Phelps. It’s always about
Michael Phelps and he won five more gold medals, this time at age 31. The Americans
also got individual gold medals from five other swimmers, including members of
the new wave Ryan Murphy and old guard Anthony Ervin. Americans stormed back to
win 33 swimming medals in Rio more than three times what any other nation could
master.
Worst Performance in Water
It took another
collective performance to secure this prize, and it deserves to be shared by
all those still unidentified individuals who contributed to turning the water
in the Olympic diving pool from transparent blue to opaque green. Hydrogen
peroxide? Inactive chlorine? Whatever the latest excuse, this was not the body
of water that the world was worried about Rio keeping clean.
Best Performance on Water
Blair Tuke and Peter Burling
were utterly dominant in the 49er class. Danuta Kozak of Hungary won three more
gold medals in women’s Kayak, bringing her career total to five. The women’s
eight from the US rowed to yet gold of their own. The oldest sailor in the
Olympic fleet at age 54, Lange learned he had lung cancer but the Argentine
still made it to starting line for South America’s first Olympics.
Worst Performance on Water
Rio’s scenic Rodrigo de
Freitas lagoon was comparatively calm when Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Yakovlev managed
just 10 strokes before capsizing in his single scull. Based on water quality
studies of the lagoon before the Olympics, this was definitely not the place to
get wet.
Best Performance in Midair
Bahamian sprinter
Shaunae Miller desperate face first lunge across the line to beat Allyson Felix
of the US in the women’s 400 meters is clearly on the shortlist. Brazil’s
Thiago Braz da Silva. Coming into the games, his personal best in the pole
vault had been 5.93 meters (19 feet 6 inches). But when he and the host nation
needed it most, he cleared 6.03 meters to set an Olympic record and upset
world-record holder Renaud Lavillenie of France.
Worst Performance in Midair
Russia’s Nadezhda
Bazhina is no tourist athlete. She is a former European champion in the 3-meter
springboard. But she made a splash for another reason in Rio: mistiming her
takeoff during the preliminaries and leaving the board at a suboptimal angle.
Best Performance Per Capita
The Caribbean still
rules. Tiny Grenada, with slightly more than 100,000 inhabitants, topped the
standings on medalspercapita.com. But Grenada won only one medal, silver by
sprinter Kirani James and the defending Olympic champion in the 400. This year,
James was thoroughly overshadowed (outside Grenada) by South African Wayde van
Niekerk’s gold medal and world record in Lane 8.
For planetary impact per capita, it remains best
to go with Jamaica, which might have won only one medal for every 247,000
inhabitants but still has the world’s fastest man (Bolt) and fastest woman
(newcomer Elaine Thompson).
Worst Performance Per Capita
Only two medals and no gold’s
for India, well on its way to supplanting China as the world’s most populous
nation. Time to retire the trophy? Certainly not, but perhaps time to get
cricket into the Olympics (everything else seems to be included).
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