After the original start date for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was deemed impossible to start the games on due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games were postponed to the next calendar year, 2021. At last, we have found ourselves here, ready to watch countries from all over the world compete on the globe’s biggest stage. And obviously, we here in the United States were watching our country’s results in the games with particular interest, as we stand firm in our belief that we are one of the best, if not the best, in nearly all of the sports that we compete in against these other countries. But as far as the individual games: how did that pan out? Would we rise to claim our gold medals and steamroll the competition? Or would we falter under the bright lights and settle for silver or even bronze? Or…a mix of both? The intrigue and suspense built up until the opening ceremony began at 6 AM ET on July 23, 2021. And here, I’m going to break down how the red, white, and blue did. So strap yourselves in.
Basketball
On one end, the US men’s national team, composed of some of the NBA’s brightest stars, got off to a less than ideal start, losing their preliminary game to France as the team headlined by Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, and Jayson Tatum struggled mightily. Of course, it did not help that three of their teammates (Devin Booker, Khris Middleton, and Jrue Holiday) did not join them immediately due to the way the 2021 NBA Finals went, and the team was still trying to get used to all the superstars playing together on the same floor. So the team took a highly criticized preliminary loss to France before regrouping after the arrivals of Booker, Middleton, and Holiday and going on to eventually win gold for the men’s national team. Not the smoothest of roads, but a gold medal is a gold medal nonetheless. On the women’s side, it was a far easier road to the gold for the women’s team, as the team made up of WNBA stars such as Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi rolled to the finish line as they didn’t lose a single game along the path to gold. And one more bit about Bird and Taurasi, the duo became the first Olympic basketball players ever to win five gold medals in their respective sport. And in the brand-new 3-on-3 basketball competition, the women’s team again rolled to the finish line as they bested the Republic of Congo 18-15 in the final game.
Beach Volleyball
In the beach volleyball games, the United States again captured another gold medal, this time spearheaded by the duo of April Ross and Alix Klineman. They took out defending gold medalist Germany and their competitors, Laura Ludwig and Margareta Kozuch in the quarterfinals. Then rode that momentum all the way to the final against Australia, as they defeated the Aussie pair of Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar in those finals. Securing the gold medal for the red, white, and blue.
Skeet Shotgun Events
In the two skeet shooting events, guess how many medals the Americans won?
Yep, two.
And guess what color they were?
Yep, gold. An event doesn’t get much better than that.
Amber English and Vincent Hancock won their medals in particularly triumphant fashion. Hancock hit a ridiculous 59 out of 60 targets (he only missed once!) as he walked away with a gold medal for himself. Similarly, Amber English hit 56 out of 60 total targets, as she bested the reigning skeet shooting champion Diana Bacosi of Italy by one hit.
Surfing
The surfing competition was a first for the Games in 2020, and the United States’ women’s surfing team took home the gold in a dominant showing in the inaugural competition. Hawaii-born Carissa Moore took down South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag by a score of 14.93 to 8.46 to take home the top spot in the competition for the US. In addition, Moore had made a special kind of history, as she had become the youngest world champion surfer in history at 18 years old. Now, ten years later, she is the first gold medal winner of the Olympic surfing competition.
Volleyball
Now, I’m not talking about beach volleyball (notice how there’s no “beach” in the heading title), but just regular arena volleyball. And going into the Games this year, the United States’ women’s volleyball team had taken home a number of silver and bronze medals, but had never struck the grand prize.
Until now.
The team took home gold in the final as they sent Brazil to a second-place finish, and two players in particular stood out, as veterans Foluke Akinrawedo and Jordan Larson, who had been trying to lead the US to gold since 2012, were part of this historic accomplishment. And it’s safe to say that this accomplishment was a long time coming for the team, as they can now celebrate with their gold medal win.
Swimming
Now, this will be the last section I cover in this piece, as if I tried to cover every single sport and every single medal the United States won over the course of the Games, this article would get way too long and too boring for anyone to read. However, this sport was arguably where the US asserted its dominance the most. In order for one to truly grasp the dominance in which the United States competed with during the course of the swimming events, I must mention the names of two competitors: Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky. First off, Dressel absolutely steamrolled everyone in his path, as he not only won a ridiculous five gold medals, he also showed that he was a team player and gave us one of the most wholesome moments of the whole Olympic Games. Tossing his recently-won gold medal to teammate Brooks Curry, who would eventually receive a gold medal of his own. And as for Katie Ledecky, after coming up just short in her highly-anticipated 400m freestyle duel with Australia’s Ariane Titmus, she came back from the silver finish with a vengeance. Winning the 800m freestyle and dominating in the first-ever women’s 1500m freestyle. After she added one more silver just for good measure in the 4x200m relay, she left the Games with four medals, taking her full count to 10 in total.
That’s all for this piece, but stay tuned to The Roundup for more Olympic and sports news!
