Friday, August 5, at 8pm, was the Opening Ceremony for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The Opening Ceremony started with the national anthem then plunged into a performance to explore Brazil’s history. The performance sent out a rallying cry for the environment.
After the performance all 206 countries were introduced and walked out with their flags and some athletes. This month there is 10,500 athletes expected to compete in the 42 different sports.
At the 2012 London Olympics the USA won with 104 medals. The USA hopes to bring back the same amount of metals or more and come out on top. The USA has 555 athletes that will competing throughout the next month of the games.
On Wednesday, the US women’s soccer team won their first round in the Olympics. With a score of 2-0 the USA beat New Zealand in their first match of the games. If the US Women’s National soccer team wins their event, they will be the first team to ever win the World Cup and Olympic Gold.
At the women’s 10 meter air rifle event on the morning of August 6 the USA brought home the first gold medal of the games. Ginny Thrasher, 19, beat China’s athlete, Du Li in the final round with a score of 208 and Li’s score was 207. Thrasher set an Olympic record with her final score.
Women seem to be on a roll so far in the 2016 Olympics. Which brings me to the next amazing gold medalist, Katie Ledecky. American swimmer broke the 400 meter freestyle world record set by herself in the 2012 Olympic Games. Ledecky won the 400 meter freestyle event 5 seconds ahead her closest competitor and the world record by 5 seconds.
Sunday August 7, the US Men's 400 meter freestyle relay swimming team brought home the gold medal. Caeleb Dressel led the relay only half a second behind the French, Michael Phelps raced second and gave the US a second lead. Ryan Held swam third and held the US's small lead then Nathan Adrian anchored the relay and swam fastest of all the US swimmers in the relay with a split of 46.97. These four men brought home one of the many to come gold medals for Team USA.
Team USA currently leads the world in total Olympic medals. With such a strong start in the games the US is expected to come out on top like they did in 2012.
The 2016 games will being shown on NBC (and channels owned by NBC) form August 3 to August 21. Numerous events will be played daily, you can check out NBC’s day by day schedule of the games.
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