The Summer Olympics- Performing For The World

[JAMES4578]

I have  been a fan of the Olympics since the 1980s's and have seen some exciting and incredible  moments, obviously not quite the same this time with unfortunately no spectators possible in Tokyo  with the covid situation.  Pity for the city awarded it for  first time since 1964 but think in circumstances has gone fairly well. Like the Winter Olympics too but prefer the Summer Games. However have still seen some great moments.   Some stand out  performances for me  include   Caleb Dressel,  Laura Kenny,Jason Kenny,Adam Peatty,Tom Daley/Matty Lee , Elaine Thomson ,Max Whitlock,  Ariarne Titmus., Alexander Zverev and Marcell Jacobs.

Some heartwarming monents here https://thelatch.com.au/best-olympic-moments-2021/ 

Athletic winners https://olympics.com/en/featured-news/olympics-100-metres-winners-list-men-women-gold-medals-champio... 

Report on some winners  here https://www.espn.com/olympics/  Was glad to see Tom Daley  finally achieve a Gold  in  10M Platform syncro (having been an individual World Champion twice) particularly after poor performance in individual event last time.  Peaty's dominated continued and a strong performance in swimming. https://www.si.com/olympics/2021/08/01/caeleb-dressel-tokyo-olympics-historic-gold-medals-career    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/26/adam-peaty-wins-gold-100m-breaststroke-tokyo-olympics-...   https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/26/tom-daley-wins-olympic-diving-gold-at-last-in-synchron...     https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-24/tokyo-olympics-swimming-australia-us-titmus-ledecky/100259874   Daley had strong start in the individual final a week later  and stepped up from the qualifying rounds but in the end he was unable to match the chinese Divers Cao and Jian, was clear in 3rd place though to take a 2nd Olympic individual Bronze and 4th Olympic medal.https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/diving-chinas-cao-wins-gold-mens-10-metre-platform-2021-08-... 

Videos and Blogs  can be seen  here https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/news/videos/ https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/olympics/ 

[JAMES4578]

Whilst it was not the expected success for Simone Biles who pulled out of the all round Gymnastics and other events to protect her mental health .  Whilst obviously some critics earned worthy praise in my view  and it was a victory of sorts when she won bronze in the Beam final.  https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/03/simone-biles-beam-bronze-medal-tokyo-2020-olympic-game... 

Naomi Osaka who had taken time out due to similar reasons was presented as the face of the Olympics but perhaps the pressure /expectation got in her way  as she exited in the 3rd round though the Wimbledon champion Ash Barty never even get past the opening round. (though the Australian took a Bronze in Mixed with John Peers)  Her czech victor did reach the final but  Switzerland's Belinda Bencic took Gold. https://www.si.com/olympics/2021/07/27/naomi-osaka-loses-third-round-tokyo-olympics  Whilst many expected Novak Djokovic to be in with a chance for the Golden slam he did not win a medal with Zverev upsetting him in the semis,though his serve lost force after a strong start.  Sascha as he is often known took the Gold winning final easily over Karen Khachanov)  In the Bronze play off  Djokovic  somewhat lost the plot in a 3 set loss to Carreno Busta. https://www.si.com/olympics/2021/07/31/djokovic-temper-flares-bronze-medal-match-loss#:~:text=The%20... 

Jack Laugher  (pronounced Law) who won Bronze in the  3m Springboard afterwards spoke of previous anxiety  issues too https://www.essentiallysports.com/tokyo-olympics-diving-news-my-anxiety-was-through-the-roof-british... 

He won Gold in the syncro with  Chris  Mears in 2016  (Mears retired to focus on music projects in 2018) but was only 7th in that event this time with Daniel Goodfellow.

[JAMES4578]

Report on some of todays events here with Great for Kenny/Archibald and Kate French in Modern Pentathlon.  Laura Muir also done very well to take silver in 1500 with such a strong field and got personal best behind defending champion Faith Kipyegon  whilst Jack Carlin took Bonze in sprint. Success in Relays with silver and Bronze with Dina Asher Smith playing a part. Fortunately injury blighted the hopes of both Asher Smith and Katerina Johnson Thomson.https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/06/team-gb-rise-to-fourth-in-olympic-medal-table-after-fl... 

[JAMES4578]

Some of the best photos here:  https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/news/photos/ 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2021/aug/04/tokyo-2020-olympics-athletics-skateboarding-cycli...

GB Medalists so far, also some great success in sailing and Equestarian.    Just a few days to go:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2021/aug/04/tokyo-2020-olympics-athletics-skateboarding-cycli... 

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sport/team-gb-medals-2021-tokyo/ 

[JAMES4578]

Whilst the list could have been a bit American centric think they include many of the best Olympians even if did not see them all in action.  https://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/the-top-100-olympic-athletes/ 

Short   Clips:   

[JAMES4578]

Best olympic Moments 

[JAMES4578]

one of the Iconic Moments in 2012 of course was Super Saturday  with Gold for Mo Farrah,Jessica Ennis and Greg Rutherford . 

Chris Hoy won 6th Gold capping great career https://olympics.com/en/video/chris-hoy-takes-keirin-gold-full-replay  and a big moment in 2012 for Andy Murray as he beat Roger Federer for Gold in straight sets. Katherine Granger also performed well taking Gold as did the Men's Four https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rowing/20041430  Some  international stars were obviously Usain Bolt,Michael Phelps  Shelley Ann Fraser Price and Allyson Felix.. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1300460-2012-olympics-30-most-memorable-stars-from-the-30th-olym... 

In 2016 stars included Mo Farah,Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, Usain Bolt, Jason Kenny,Laura Katinka Hosszu, Ryan Murphy, Michael Phelps. and Danuta Kozak. Some include here   https://olympics.com/en/news/the-stars-of-rio-2016 

Whilst  Rebecca Adlington not quite capturing form of 2008 did win 2 Bronze .    2008  wins here .   It proved to be both Hoy's and Addlington's last Olympics.  

[JAMES4578]

Will touch as this as there were complaints that BBC coverage somewhat limited this year, they can only show 2 live events simultaneously  compared to the large number of streams that were available in previous games.  Discovery  (who own Eurosport) have the main rights and had 9 channels for the Olympics  which is  (compared to the usual 2) However not everything was on there and for some events you needed Discovery Plus which is an extra subscription.  I have Sky Q and have a free 12 month offer on that mind you(though did not use that a great deal but for instance  doubles tennis matches involving Andy Murray/Joe Salisbury )were only on there) ) and viewed both Eurosport and the BBC.      https://www.wired.co.uk/article/tokyo-olympics-bbc-coverage 

[DannyT]

There has been a lot of extra moments posted to BBC iPlayer. That's where I've been keeping up with everything that's happening. Again, it's not everything, but the highlights cover the rest. 

[JAMES4578]

Yes at least iplayer has some extra stuff, though not the same coverage as previously.