Sunisa Lee of the U.S. poses with her gold medal after winning the women's all-around final at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
This year's Olympic Games has been an event unlike any other before it. The ongoing pandemic has changed so much, most noticeable being the ban on spectators with even families barred from attending. Still, despite these difficulties, athletes are blazing trails and making history.
Some countries took home their first ever Olympic medals
The first week was a whirlwind for San Marino, a tiny country in Southern Europe with a population of only 34,000. (To put it into perspective, consider that Wyoming, the U.S. state with the smallest population in the country, has around 580,000 residents). When Alessandra Perilli earned a bronze medal in women's trap shooting on Thursday, San Marino became the smallest country to ever medal at the Games. Perilli's medal is also the first-ever Olympic medal for San Marino.
The first week of the Olympics was also a big deal for the Philippines. Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz won the gold on Monday, a first for her country despite nearly 100 years of participation in the Games. And if that weren't note-worthy enough for you, she also set an Olympic record in the process, lifting a combined weight of 224 kilograms, or around 493 pounds, across two lifts.
Fellow weightlifter Polina Guryeva made history for her country, too: her silver medal is the first Olympic medal Turkmenistan has earned since gaining independence from the Soviet Union.
The Philippines' Hidilyn Diaz poses with her weightlifting gold medal. Chris Graythen/Getty Images
This week saw Bermuda win its first ever gold medal at the Games. Flora Duffy earned the top spot in women's individual triathlon on Tuesday, making her home island proud. It was no easy feat, either: the individual triathlon involves open-water swimming, biking and running. Duffy's win came more than 40 years after Bermuda took home its last Olympic medal: a bronze for heavyweight boxing in 1976.
Gymnast Rebeca Andrade earned Brazil's first medal in artistic gymnastics, taking home the silver at the women's all-around finals after battling multiple ACL injuries in recent years. And Japan won its first ever gold in fencing after coming out on top in the men's epee team final over the Russian Olympic Committee.
Ugandan runners Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo took home the silver and bronze medals in the men's 10,000m race, marking the first time Uganda has ever medaled in that event. And Ma Long, representing China, won the gold in the men's singles table tennis event for the second time in a row and fourth time overall. He's the first Olympian to medal in two consecutive Games in his event and is officially the most medaled male athlete in his sport.
America has had plenty of firsts this week, too. The U.S. medaled for the first time in women's synchronized 10-meter platform diving as Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell won the silver. Anastasija Zolotic, at only 18 years old, also earned the U.S. her first ever gold medal in women's taekwondo.
Meanwhile, Lee Kiefer, a 27-year-old fencer, became the first American to win the gold in individual foil fencing; she is also the first Asian American woman to win a gold medal in the sport of fencing, according to NBC News. William Shaner, a 20-year-old college student, also made history as the first American to win gold in the men's 10M air rifle category and set an Olympic record with his score in the process.
Individual athletes broke barriers at the Games
Gymnast Sunisa Lee made her hometown of St. Paul, Minn., proud when she won gold at Thursday's individual all-around competition. But even before winning gold, she'd already made history as the first Hmong American to represent her country on the U.S. Olympics team, and her supporters were moved to tears after her monumental win.
American surfer Carissa Moore became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in her sport on Tuesday. However, she's clearly no stranger to making history, after having been named the youngest world champion in surfing when she was 18 years old.
Daiki Hashimoto of Team Japan celebrates his victory with the Japan Flag during the Men's All-Around Final on day five of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
Japan saw huge victories on Wednesday: 19-year-old gymnast Daiki Hashimoto won gold in the men's all-around event after an outstanding routine on the horizontal bars clinched the victory for him. He is now the youngest ever to claim the title. Meanwhile, siblings Hifumi Abe and Uta Abe both won golds in judo on the same day, something that had never been done before.
This Olympics also saw the inclusion of the first ever openly non-binary athlete, Alana Smith, an American skateboarder. Their goal for the Games was "to be happy and be a visual representation for humans like me," they said in an Instagram post.
Quinn, a member of the Canadian women's soccer team, is one of the first openly transgender athletes to compete in the Olympics. Of such a huge achievement, they said they feel "optimistic" that more change is coming. Alongside Quinn is Chelsea Wolfe, a BMX rider who is the first openly transgender athlete to compete on Team USA. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was also the first trans athlete to ever qualify for the Olympics and will make her debut on Monday.
It's a big year for LGBTQ representation in the Games: there are more openly LGBTQ athletes at the Tokyo Games than in any Olympics before, according to Outsports. And they've won medals at a rate that would outpace lots of countries.
This year featured important Olympic sport debuts
The Tokyo Games saw the inclusion of four entirely new sports and the return of two that hadn't been featured for over a decade. Softball and baseball returned to the Olympics after 13 years, while skateboarding, surfing, sports climbing, and karate made their Olympics debut.
It's not an easy process to make the cut for the Olympic Games; plenty of popular sports don't land a spot on the program. It was quite a victory for skateboarding in particular, which had already struggled historically to be categorized as a sport.
Momiji Nishiya of Team Japan competes during the Women's Street Final on day three of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Thanks to the inclusion of skateboarding, Japan hit a new milestone: 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya, who earned the top spot in women's street skating, is now her country's youngest gold medalist.
Britain won gold in the inaugural triathlon mixed relay.
Athletes have set new world records at the Games.
Rowers Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler, hailing from New Zealand, set a new world record on Thursday during the women's pair semi-final after having their previous world record beaten by a pair from Greece earlier that day. New Zealand rowers have excelled in their sport during the Games: Emma Twigg took home the gold in single sculls rowing on Thursday and set an Olympic record while she was at it. Her win is also the first time New Zealand has ever medaled in this event.
Greece also had monumental success with rowing. Stefanos Ntouskos won gold in the men's single sculls event on Thursday – the first ever rowing gold for Greece —and a new world record for Ntouskos.
For America, water polo player Maggie Steffens helped her team win against the Russian Olympic Committee and, in the process, set a record of the most goals scored by an individual player in the event's history with 49 goals.
Australian Emma McKeon set two Olympic records: during the 100m freestyle final and again during the women's 50m freestyle semi-finals. She also helped the Australian team set a new world record during the women's 4x100m freestyle relay.
More firsts are on the way.
There are more milestones headed our way. For the first time ever, male and female swimmers will swim in the same race in the Olympics, competing against each other in the mixed medley relay final on Saturday (although technically, both genders already swam together in the preliminary heats on Thursday).
There will also be a mixed medley relay in the Track and Field category on Saturday, the first event of its kind in Olympics history. Sprinter Allyson Felix of Team USA is one to watch: if she wins just one more gold, she'll have set a new record. At nine gold medals, she and Jamaica's Merlene Ottey currently have more than any other female Olympian in history.
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