Ten things to know from what happened in the world of sport. July 20-26, 2021: Headlines from the Olympic Games, of course!
  1. Brisbane 2032. The city of Brisbane, Australia, has been awarded the host of the 2032 Summer Olympic Games. This is the third time that Australia plays host (after Melbourne 1956 and Sydney 2000). This will be the smallest metropolitan area that hosts the Games in decades.
  2. Hancock for a third time. Vincent Hancock (USA) became the first individual to win the Men’s Skeet gold medal for a third time, having won in 2008 and 2012. Also in shooting, Javad Foroughi (IRI) consolidates a breakthrough year where he has come from unknown to win two gold Cups and an Olympic gold, in the 10 m air pistol. 21 year-old Qian Yang (CHN) was the first Olympic gold medalist after taking the 10 m air rifle women. She then also won gold in the mixed team competition.
  3. Agbegnenou wins this time! After having lost the Rio 2016 Final in the Women’s Judo under 63 kg category, she won this time by golden score against Tina Trstenjak (SVN), who had beat her four year prior. Agbegnenou is a five-time World Champion. With eight competitions so far Japan has won gold in all four men’s competitions but “only” one gold in women’s, by way of Uta Abe, who won gold a few minutes before her brother, Hifume Abe, also won gold. Funa Tonaki (JPN) suffered a disappointing loss to Distria Krasniqi (XKX). Nora Gjakova also won gold for Kosovo. 
  4. African upset. 18 year-old Ahmed Hafnaoui (TUN) pulled the upset in the Men’s 400 Freestyle Swimming event. Caeleb Dressel (USA) also started his campaign vying for five-seven Olympic golds by winning the Men’s 4×100 Freestyle relay. As expected, Adam Peaty (GBR) won the 100 m. breaststroke, which he has dominated for years. As we send this publication, Ariarne Titmus (AUS) has already won two gold medals: the 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle. Katie Ledecky (USA) was silver in the 400 but finished a disappointing fifth in 200.
  5. Escapes to win. Each of the Men’s and Women’s Cycling Road Races, Men’s and Women’s Mountain Bike races and Men’s and Women’s Individual Triathlon events have been won by an individual that attacked and escaped from the rest to win. Anna Kiesenhofer (AUT) – a Doctor in mathematics with no major international win in her career- smashed pulled arguably the biggest upset of these Games so far to win the Women’s Road Race and the first Olympic gold medal for Austria since 2004. In Men’s, Richard Carapaz (ECU) escaped to win over Wout Van Aert (BEL), who beat Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar (SVN) on the line. Switzerland did the 1-2-3 in the Women’s Mountain Bike Race while Tom Pidcock (GBR) smashed the field in the Men’s race, just as he did in the last World Cup event. Flora Duffy (BMU) and Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) won the Triathlon individual events.
  6. Szilágyi’s third straight gold. Áron Szilágyi (HUN) became the first fencer in Olympic history to win three Olympic gold medals in an individual fencing event. He won the Men’s Sabre Individual competition three times in a row, in London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. This is extremely difficult considering how unpredictable individual fencing is, and it is especially difficult considering these Games were held five years after the previous ones.
  7. Korean precision. Kim Je-deok and An San (KOR) and started their Olympic journey at the ages of 17 and 20 respectively and won gold in their first two competitions: first they won the first ever Olympic Archery Mixed team competition and then they won the Team competition with their respective teams. Moreover, they also placed first in the qualifying rounds of the individual competitions: Kim with a score of 688 and An with an Olympic Record of 680.
  8. Australian World Record. Australia looked a class apart in the Women’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay at the Summer Olympic Games. They were almost two seconds clear of the rest in the Heats and then beat Canada and United States of America by full three seconds to take the gold medal with a World Record time of 3:29.69.
  9. Teenage dream. Pre-teenagers and teenagers have had a great year in Skateboarding. The sport’s debut at the Games was won by very young skaters in the women’s division. 13 year-old Momiji Nishiya (JPN) won for the local country, right ahead of fellow 13 year-old Rayssa Leal (BRA) and 16 year-old Funa Nakayama (JPN). The men’s division was on by 22 year-old Yuto Horigome (JPN).
  10. Surfing’s debut. Surfing also made its Olympic debut. The best gave their best as the current World Surf League Champions won the first ever Olympic gold medals in the sport: Carissa Moore (USA, Women’s) and Italo Ferreira (BRA, Men’s). Japan had a very good competition, as Kanoa Igarashi (JPN, Men’s) and Amuro Tsuzuki (JPN, Women’s) took silver and bronze medals, respectively.