As the Olympics fade into their second weeks of competition I am continuously amazed by how fast these people can swim or run, or how much weight they can lift. Every four years this is definitely the highlight of my summer.
Although many people do respect the amazing women out in the Olympics, there has been a lot of buzz over the sexism from NBC and different news outlets who either credit the men more than the women. The craziest comment of all was from NBC's chief marketing officer stating that women watch the olympics because they find it in a way like a reality show rather than because they like sports. Hey Mr. John Miller here is a crazy thought, maybe I actually like sports, or maybe I'm watching to support my country. Either way these men are crazy and need to settle it down with the sexist comments, because believe or not we are actually listening and not just waiting for that zoom in of Michael Phelps' abs.
Despite the sexist commentators and people who aren't as appreciative as they should be, let us look at a few awesome women who have kicked ass this past week.
1. Katie Ledecky
Katie is 19 years old and recently impressed everyone with her amazing 800m freestyle race where she smashed the world record by two whole seconds. Along with that gold win, she's also won a gold in the 200m and 400m freestyle, as well as the 4x200m relay. Finally, she won a silver in the 4x100m freestyle. This 19 year old matches the same number (and type) of medals compared to 31 year old Michael Phelps. This is the beginning of her career and I believe that in the next two games she will continue to dominate the freestyle competition.
2. Madeline Dirado
Having been on a swimming team since she was 6 Madeline AKA Maya, surprisingly was okay settling on being just a really good swimmer. It wasn't until she started swimming at Stanford University when her coach really pushed her and told her she could go so much further. At 23 years old Maya has won two gold medals, one in the 200m Backstroke and the other in the 4x200m freestyle. This is her first and last Olympics as she has a job waiting for her to start this fall. Either way she's a kick-butt gal that loves her pizza.
3. Simone Biles
Another young athlete Simone Biles is 19 years old and has easily impressed the world with her gymnastics skills this past week. She has won two gold medals, one as a member of the women's team all around, and the biggest accomplishment of having won the women's individual-all around. There is no doubt that this spunky girl will come back in fury for the 2020 olympics.
4. Simone Manuel
Simone Manuel is a 20 year old swimmer who has won gold in the 100m freestyle, as well as two silvers in the 50m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle. Simone was the first African American female swimmer to win and Olympic gold. Simone stated that she didn't want to be known as just "a black swimmer who won gold," and that she is waiting for the day that that will be a normal occurrence.
5. Lilly King
Lilly King is 19 years old and has so far won a gold in the 4x100, as well as the 100m breath stroke setting the Olympic record to 1:04:93. A small bustle between Yulia Efimova and Lilly King when after Yulia had won the 100m breath stroke finals she put up her index finger and pointed number one. King responded with a wag of her finger which quickly took fire as a campaign against the usage of performance enhancing drugs. Yulia had recently just been cleared to swim as she had been on a 16 month suspension due to the use of performance enhancing drugs. King has the right mindset for a positive swimming career and hopefully we will see more out of her soon.
6. Aly Raisman
Aly Raisman is 22 years old and this is her second olympics she's attended, in 2012 she was part of the "Fierce Five." This Olympics she won the gold in Women's team all around as well as a silver for the individual all around. The video of Aly crying tears of success has been going viral after she performed a phenomenal floor routine. Aly performed phenomenally in both Olympics and has wowed us all.
