sport

Olympic talking points – green water, rosey golf and a whole lot of Phelps

8 years ago
by matdrew9

It has been one week since the Olympic Games started in Rio and there has been a lot to talk about. Let us round up some of the most interesting, awe-inspiring and amusing stories that have cropped up over the past seven days.

Opening ceremony

It all started last Friday with a dazzling ceremony in the Maracana Stadium which presented the carnival atmosphere of the host city to the world.

The ceremony also had a focus on the environmental impacts of the games, an aspect which made lifestyle blogger Sarah Dickinson say: “It’s great that Rio are concentrating on making the games greener.

“Every competitor has been given a seed to plant…..that’s 11,000 trees people!”

That is a lot of greenery and you can see the many other thoughts Sarah had as she was watching on her blog Writing Rambling.

Green games

The green focus of these Olympics seemed to leak into the diving pool as it increasingly became more and more colourful throughout the week’s events.

The hue did not put off British divers Jack Laugher and Chris Mears – the latter of which who was only given a 5% chance of survival after rupturing his spleen in 2009.

The plunged into the murky waters and emerged as gold medalists in the synchronised 3m springboard event.

Hole-in-one

Great Britain’s Justin Rose shot the first ever Olympic hole-in-one on Thursday and we will let the video below say the rest.

Joint custody

Two swimmers will share an Olympic title as Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak finished in exactly the same Olympic record time in the women’s 100m freestyle.

The pair, swimming for the USA and Canada respectively, looked slightly unsure what to do as they climbed to the top step of the podium in synchronisation to receive their medals.

Manuel became the first black female swimmer to win an Olympic gold, while Oleksiak claimed the title aged just 16.

Records tumble

Great Britain’s Adam Peaty broke the world record twice on his way to winning the men’s 100m breaststroke event in an eventual time of 57.13 seconds.

In the velodrome the women’s team pursuit saw the Olympic record bested several times after a rule change meant four women can now race in the team, allowing the riders to go faster as they share the workload with an extra pair of legs.

Eventually the Brits managed to smash their own world record with a ride of 4.13.260 over the 4km race, overshadowing the men’s team sprint who twice set an Olympic record to take a surprise gold medal against New Zealand.

And Michael Phelps just will not go away as he continually raises the bar as the most decorated athlete in Olympics history.

The supreme swimmer now has 26 medals, 22 of those gold.

He has won four gold medals at Rio 2016 and would currently sit 10th in the medal table were he to be his own nation, although by the time you have read this he could have many more.

Keep an eye out for more talking points as the Olympics rolls on, and have your say about the moments of the Games in the comments section below.

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