Everything about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was unusual.
The lack of fans in the stands made the events boring and dry, athletes were forced to wear masks due to COVID protocols — taking away the audience’s ability to see the joy of winning on their faces — and for some reason, NBC lacked any ability to simply put out a schedule of events that we could all understand.
I’ve been watching the Olympics for decades, I cover sports for a living, and I even noticed that my enthusiasm was lower than it has been for past Olympic Games. The time difference certainly had an impact. Waking up at 3 a.m. CT to watch gymnastics saps the energy. However, if you watched with even one eye open, you were treated to some phenomenal athletic feats and a handful of inspiring stories.
As is the case with sports, there are always losers — even when the “losers” of Olympic competitions are at the highest level of competition.
Let’s take a look at the winners from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and those that maybe had a rougher go across the Pacific.
The Winners
Caeleb Dressel
The 24-year old swimmer exploded onto the scene in Tokyo, winning five gold medals and becoming just the third American swimmer to win three individual gold medals in a single Games. He set two world records on the journey, becoming the face of men’s swimming in the process.
He won gold in the 100m butterfly, 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle, 4×100 freestyle relay, and 4×100 medley relay.
“It is a different type of pressure [at the Olympics]. I’m aware of that now and I’ll stop lying to myself,” Dressel said. “An event that happens every four years, for a race that [lasts] 40-something seconds or 20-something seconds, you have to be so perfect in that moment.”
“With an extra year, it’s a five-year buildup—or a 24-year buildup, whatever you want to call it—there’s so much pressure in the moment. Your whole life boils down to a moment that will take 20-40 seconds. How crazy is that? And it’s every four years. I wouldn’t tell myself that during the meet, but it’s terrifying. A lot of it boils down to a very precise moment in the universe, and that just happens to be the Olympics.”
Suni Lee
When one star’s light begins to dim, another star has an opportunity to shine. Women’s gymnast Suni Lee is the next bright star in the sport.
When Simone Biles pulled out of the women’s team competition, it was up to Lee and the rest of the squad to pick up the slack. They did, managing to secure a silver medal even with the GOAT not participating in the competition.
Lee’s Olympics was nowhere near finished, with appearances in individual events still to come.
In the women’s all-around, Lee continued U.S. dominance in the event, becoming the fifth-straight American woman to take home the gold in the event.
Lee — just 18-years-old — was the first Hmong American to make the U.S. Olympic team, and has an incredible story of perseverance in her run to gold. Lee also won bronze in the women’s uneven bars.
Katie Ledecky
The face of American swimming had serious competition in Tokyo, and while she wasn’t perfect, she proved once again that her greatness is unmatched.
After losing to her rival — Ariarne Titmus of Australia — in the 200 and 400-meter freestyle, Ledecky bounced back with her third consecutive gold medal in the women’s 800-meter freestyle. Ledecky became the first swimmer to win gold in the event at three consecutive Olympics.
She leaves Tokyo having now won 10 Olympic medals: seven golds and three silvers in her three Olympic appearances.
There were some that felt the Tokyo Olympics would be Ledecky’s last, but she put those rumors to bed right after winning gold.
“That was not my last swim,” Ledecky told NBC with a laugh. “I’m at least going to ’24, maybe ’28. We’ll see. You never take anything for granted. You don’t know if you’re gonna be back at the next Olympics, so you just try to soak it all in.”
Allyson Felix
In her fifth Olympics — and first as a mother — Felix proved that age is nothing but a number.
The 35-year-old became the most decorated female Olympic track and field athlete of all time in Tokyo. She won the bronze medal in the 400-meter, giving her 10 Olympic medals in her illustrious career. 24 hours later, Felix passed track and field legend Carl Lewis as the most decorated U.S. track and field athlete in history when she was part of the women’s 4×400 relay gold-winning team.
Tamyra Mensah-Stock
Mensah-Stock became just the second American woman to win gold in Olympic women’s wrestling while also becoming the first black woman to win the event. It was a massive accomplishment, but it was her reaction after winning that stole our hearts.
“I surprised myself! It’s by the grace of God I’m able even to move my feet,” Mensah-Stock said. “I just leave it in his hands. And I pray that all the practice, the hell that my freaking coaches put me through, pays off. And every single time it does. And I get better and better. And it’s so weird that there’s no cap to the limit I can do. And I’m excited to see what I have next.”
When asked by the reporter how it felt to represent her country, Mensah-Stock responded in a way that will warm every American’s heart.
“It feels amazing,” said Mensah-Stock. “I love representing the U.S. I freaking love living there. I love it. And I’m so happy I get to represent USA!”
“I’m so happy I get to represent USA!” pic.twitter.com/Y5CcjaPCbK
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 3, 2021
The Losers
USWNT
Megan Rapinoe and the women’s national soccer team are thought of as the best team in the world. They’re also the most “woke.”
Maybe this is the wake-up call they needed to get back to focusing on the field instead of making statements.
After getting blown out by Sweden 3-0 in their first game of group play, the Americans failed to make it to the gold-medal round, losing to Canada 1-0 in the semifinals.
“It’s terrible. We just didn’t have it today,” Rapinoe told reporters after the game. “Just too many errors from us again. I felt like the space was there for us to play and we just couldn’t get into it, too many touches or, you know, an errant touch.”
“That’s football. They got, I think, one shot on goal, a PK, and from what it sounds like it was a PK. So yeah, it’s a bitter one to swallow.”
The disappointing Olympics came after the USWNT took a knee before their first game, citing solidarity with a statement against racism.
U.S. Men’s Track and Field
In what used to be a guaranteed medal, the men’s team didn’t even qualify for the final in the 4×100 meter relay race. For the fourth straight Olympics, the U.S. men’s team failed to medal in the relay, placing sixth in qualifying.
The shocking performance drew the ire of Carl Lewis, who teed off on the lack of leadership and coaching.
“It’s unacceptable. It’s so disheartening to see this because it’s people’s lives,” Lewis told USA TODAY Sports. “We’re just playing games with people’s lives. That’s why I’m so upset. It’s totally avoidable. And America is sitting there rooting for the United States and then they have this clown show. I can’t take it anymore. It’s just unacceptable. It is not hard to do the relay.”
As a whole, the men’s team won only one individual gold at the Tokyo Olympics — shot put.
Simone Biles
However you viewed the Biles saga — you either thought she quit or she was a hero for focusing on her mental health — she didn’t win a single gold medal at the Olympics. Her performance was a massive disappointment considering many felt she had an opportunity to win five.
After withdrawing from the team competition after her first vault attempt, Biles went on to miss the four individual events before returning for the balance beam. She managed to win a bronze medal — certainly an accomplishment — but not what was expected of her.
While it is appropriate to sympathize with her state, her GOAT status is certainly up for debate. Biles has not ruled out participating in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.