The 2016 Summer Olympics will certainly go down as one of the most memorable Olympic Games of all-time. The story lines (some good, some bad) and drama that have surrounded certain athletes have made these games in Rio De Janeiro a must-see event.
Michael Phelps may have solidified himself as the single most dominant Olympic athlete ever. With 28 medals, 23 of them gold, he is certainly the most decorated Olympian of all-time. What I will remember most about Phelps is that he made me interested in a sport I would otherwise have no interest in watching.
Starting with the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and ending with the 2016 games in Rio De Janeiro, when Phelps was set to hit the pool, I had to be by a television to watch. His dominance in a sport that takes the ultimate conditioning and dedication is something that amazed me and polarized the sport of swimming.
And of course Usain Bolt! The athlete who has been known as the fastest man in the world since 2008. He has absolutely owned the sport of track & field as a sprinter, winning gold medals in the 100m and 200m, as well as the 4x100 relay with his Jamaican teammates in every Olympics since 2008. The meme-friendly photo of Bolt in the 100m final cruising past competitors while wearing a smile as wide as Broadway Avenue will forever be implanted in my all-time sports memory bank.
It feels almost unfair to see great athletes, those who are considered the other best in the world, struggle and put their all into a race, while one man beats them all and makes it look rather easy. Only Carl Lewis, who has nine Olympic gold medals in track & field, is comparable in the sport.
Bolt, who can win Olympic gold medal number nine with a win in the 4x100 relay in Rio, is already considered by many the greatest Olympian ever. If he can secure that win, along with the fact that it would leave him undefeated in Olympic competition, would only bolster his claim as the greatest. What impresses me most about Bolt is not the fact that he is just faster than anyone, but the fact that he does it with so much joy. He feels no pressure.
Simone Biles lived up to all of the pre-Olympic hype with her performance in gymnastics overall. She won five medals in all (four of them gold) in Rio and will always be remembered for her dominant showing in the vault as well as the floor exercise. She is also considered by many the greatest of all-time in her sport. If it wasn't for a small mistake on the balance beam, she could have very well became the first gymnast to win five gold medals at one Summer Olympics.
Those are three athletes that, when it is all said and done, could be considered the greatest in their respective sport and they all happened to be competing in the same Olympic Games. As a sports fan those are the kinds of things you try not to take for granted as we may never see it again.
Then you have Kerri Walsh Jennings, who fell short of a unprecedented 4th gold medal in women's beach volleyball, but may have gained even more respect in the fact that she was still able to play at such a high level. She won gold in Athens in 2004 with former teammate Misty May-Treanor (where she didn't lose a single set), and every four years after that until these Rio games. The tandem are considered the greatest women's beach volleyball team ever and one can argue that they were as dominant as any team in Olympic history.
And let's not forget about Kristin Armstrong, who at the age of 43 won her third gold medal in road bicycle racing. The lasting memory of her falling to the ground after asking if she had won the race was a moment that you felt if you were watching.
Or Simone Manuel who became the first African-American, male or female, to win an individual medal as a swimmer when she won gold in the 100m freestyle. It seemed every where you turned history was being made.
The positive publicity far outweighed the negative during the Summer Olympics, but I would remiss not to mention the things that weren't so good about these games. Like the robbery (or not) situation involving Ryan Lochte and three other American swimmers and the fact that they fabricated much of the story. Or the Russian doping scandal that left many of their athletes at home, but at the same time saw athletes that were guilty of doping still compete(yes, this one gets me too). Let's also not forget some of the horrid living conditions some athletes were forced to live, the polluted water or the Zika virus scare.
When you put all these story lines together in one you get one of the most compelling, entertaining and most talked about sporting events ever. Not many people can say the've witnessed multiple athletes that are considered the greatest compete in a Summer Olympics at the same time. These are the types of things you will be able to pass on from one generation to the next. I feel honored that one day I may have the opportunity to do the same.
