The Rio 2016 Olympics unite the world through competition
The year 2016 was historic for sports around the world.
The Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was the largest event of the year, as it was full of returning veteran athletes, starring in their events and newcomers from all over the world, making a huge splash.
Allyson Felix from the United States became the most decorated women in all of track and field, according to “The top 10 stories of the 2016 Rio Olympics,” by Kevin Kudak from Yahoo Sports.
Felix won three medals in the 2016 Olympics in the 4x100m relay, the 4x400m relay and the 400m run and now owns nine Olympic medals, six of which are gold, according to Kudak’s article.
In the pool, Simone Manuel from the USA won the 100m freestyle swim to become the first African American woman swimmer to win gold, according to Kudak’s article.
Katie Ledecky, the USA 19 year-old swimmer, dominated in the pool.
She won four gold medals, competing in the 200m, 4x200m, 800m and 400m freestyles and is expected to return, even better, in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, said Stephanie Weber from usmagazine.com in “10 Best, Biggest Moments From the 2016 Rio Olympics.”
Fiji made history as they won their nation’s first ever Olympic medal, a gold, in men’s rugby, according to “Rio Olympics 2016: The most memorable moments” from bbc.com.
Brazil’s men’s soccer team, led by Neymar, won on their home turf in a penalty kick shootout, according to bbc.com.
Simone Biles from the United States won four gold medals and a bronze and dominated the individual all-around competition in women’s gymnastics.
Her team, known as the Final Five, defended the 2012 team title and came home with the gold, according to sports.yahoo.com.
The first track event in the Olympics, the women’s 10,000m run, was one to remember as Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana crushed the previous world record by more than 14 seconds to win gold, said bbc.com.
Great Britain’s Mo Farah became the second man to retain both the 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic titles. He has four gold medals and is Great Britain’s most successful track athlete, as noted in the article “Rio Olympics 2016: The most memorable moments,” from bbc.com.
Two of the world’s best athletes of all time retired after making their last Olympics memorable ones.
Michael Phelps of the USA announced his retirement after winning his 28 Olympic medal and his 23 career gold, according to Kaduk’s article.
He won five gold medals this Olympics and one silver and will be missed as one of the best swimmers ever.
Usain Bolt, from Jamaica, won all three of the events he competed in his last Olympics ever, according to bbc.com.
He has nine Olympic medals and has the world record in both the 100m and 200m.
The next summer Olympics will be in Tokyo is 2020, and will hopefully be another one full of world records and memorable victories.
