As the games are reaching the end of their course, we have seen countless award ceremonies, the tears of happiness of every winner, and also many moments of disappointments. There have been moments that have made history, and also those that have broken barriers.
One of the triumphs was Simone Manuel. She became the first African American Woman Swimmer to ever win a gold medal in individual swimming. This is incredibly huge for the times and culture we are living in today. To think that just over 50 years ago, blacks were not allowed in pools, forcing the stereotype that African Americans could not swim. A lot has changed since then. Just to think that other athletes like her have received a huge amount of support to do what they love.
When it comes to the amount of medals the United States has won so far compared to the other countries, we can see a major difference. The US stands first amongst more than one hundred countries with a lot more medals. The US has dominated in almost every Olympic Games compared to other countries. The United States supports its Athletes to the maximum. They receive the right training, the right places to train to prepare for the task with the right resources. Athletes here have the opportunity to do what they love and probably have a better chance of making a living out of it.
One athlete that caught my attention was Ethiopian Robel Kiros Habte, a swimmer from Ethiopia. He placed 59th place in the men's 110-meter freestyle. Many people online began body shaming and questioning why a man with his figure would be competing in the games. It was also mentioned that he was the son of the president of the country's swimming federation. Here is a statement from Habte, “I wanted to do something different for my country, that’s why I chose swimming,” “Everybody, every day you wake up in Ethiopia, you run. Not swimming. But I didn’t want to run, I wanted to be a swimmer. It didn’t matter where I finished.”
Now this is despite his body type, but whether it was some sort of nepotism or lack of other athletes qualifying, this is one example on how other countries don't really have means of opportunity for every athlete. Unfortunately, not every country has the same amount of pools, the same amount of tracks, same amount of fields, same amount courts, etc to compete with what the United States has to offer. Not to mention that the United States pays good money for their uniforms entering in the opening ceremony as well.
Let's think about it this way, if Michael Phelps was in a third world country, with the dream of wanting to swim, play, but however was stopped by lack of means or resources, would he still be the Michael Phelps we know today? There are many athletes out there with probably the same potential. There even some now that are breaking barriers in each team. Yet, the support of their countries resources also makes the difference.
