Tokyo 2020 Olympics Recap - The Narrative Matters

The Tokyo Olympics came to a close on Sunday 8^th August with a colorful closing ceremony and the handover of the Olympic Games to the next host city.

The final day events displayed the dominance of the US Teams throughout the 2020 edition of the Olympic Games, with both Women’s Volleyball and Basketball teams clinching gold medals.

The final nine days of the Games mainly involved track and field events, and the US Team cemented its dominance, winning seven gold, 12 silver, and seven bronze medals. Overall, Team USA took home 113 medals; 39 gold, 41 silver, and 33 bronze medals topping the world medal charts.

After a shocking loss to France for the Men’s basketball team in their opener match on 25^th July, the US team met their Group A rivals in the final match. It was a scintillating gold medal match as expected, and the US emerged triumphant, narrowly beating France 87-82 on 7^th August.

The women’s team would comfortably defend their Rio 2016 medals a day later by defeating Japan 90-75. This was the seventh consecutive Olympic gold for the USA Women’s Basketball team.

The Women’s Volleyball team pulled a surprising win against the hosts, Japan, to win their first gold in the sport since its inception in Olympic Games in 1964. Other notable final day golds came from 4x400m relay teams, with both Men’s and Women’s teams clinching gold medals.

One of the four team members of the Women’s 4×400 relay, Allyson Felix, cemented her legendary status after clinching her 11^th Olympic medal.

The 35-year old surpassed Carl Lewis to become the most decorated American Olympics track and field athlete and later celebrated with her 2-year-old daughter Camryn. Felix stated that she intends to retire before the 2024 Paris Olympics Games, joining the club of successful Olympians that missed this year’s event for the first time since their debut.

Record-breaking athletes such as Usain Bolt of Jamaica and Michael Phelps’ retirements after the Rio Games created a vacuum for new heroes to fill, most of which are promising talents to watch in Paris 2024.

In the absence of Usain Bolt in the 100m and 200m sprint races, new gold medalists were born in Lamont Jacobs and Andre De Grasse, respectively. Similarly, despite the absence of Michael Phelps, 28-time Olympic medalists (23 gold), the US Swimming team clinched 30 medals in the sport, 11 of them being gold.

Promising talents such as Erriyon Knighton,17, who finished fourth in the 200m final, established future dominance of Team USA in the upcoming Olympic Games.

Overall, the 113 medals for the US teams were shared across Baseball (1 medal), Basketball (3 medals), Boxing (4 medals), Canoe/kayak (1 medal), Cycling (3 medals), Diving (3 medals), Equestrian (2 medals), Fencing (2 medals), Golf (2 medals), Gymnastics (6 medals), Karate (1 medal), Shooting (6 medals), Swimming (30 medals), Skateboarding (2 medals), Soccer (1 medal), Softball (1 medal), Surfing (1 medal), Taekwondo (1 medal), Track and Field (26 medals), Triathlon (2 medals), Volleyball (2 medals), Water polo (1 medal), Weightlifting (2 medals) and Wrestling (9 medals). The team finished first in the global medal rankings, ahead of China in second place (88 medals; 38 gold), and Japan in third place (58 medals; 27 gold).