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| The logo for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. |
#London2012 Olympics is now officially over and now all eyes are on #Rio2016 in four years’ time. I think this year’s Olympics lives up to my expectations. Every athletic strive to perform their best, newcomers storm the field with shocking performance and more world records are broken in the process. It shows us that humans can be even better as times come. But after 17 days, one thing still makes me sad, I am going to wait for at least another 4 years to witness Malaysia's first gold medal. Hopefully in 2016, I’ll be able to be at Rio to witness the games or be a volunteer. Well, let’s be fair, the Malaysia athletics perform well at this year’s Olympics. At least, we didn’t see a major flop in our 30 athletics that competes in London. Lee Chong Wei gives his performance of the live, but still so close yet so far, 2 points was the margin between a gold and silver. Well, he did his best, but unfortunately luck was not in his side. I give my upmost respect to him despite not winning the gold medal. While, our diving queen Pandelela Rinong brings home an unexpected bronze medal back. (As no Malaysian expect a medal other than badminton) Hopefully, she will work hard and possibly get a gold medal at Rio in 2016 while she will be 23 at that time.
Now it’s time to talk about some of the stars of the Olympics. Michael Phelps of USA has established himself as the best Olympian in the history, winning another 4 gold medals at this year’s game. Despite not being his best Olympic outing, he is really a great talent in swimming and his name will always be remembered. This was his last Olympics Games, sadly we won’t be seeing him at Rio. He has won a total of 18 gold medals in 3 Olympics outing. (6 at Athens 2004, 8 at Beijing 2008 and 4 at London 2012) It’s hard to imagine who will ever surpass his great achievement in the coming years. At the age of 16, Ye Shiwen of China has already won 2 gold medals in both individual medley events and breaks an Olympic and a world record at the games. The most surprising was her final 50m freestyle in the 200m individual medley events is even faster than the male winner-Ryan Lochte. (The overall time is still slower than Ryan). I expect her to swim in other categories apart from the 2 individual medley events in the future. Perhaps she could swim in the individual freestyle event as she has shown quite astonishing results in her freestyle. She’s definitely a swimmer everybody will look out for as she turns 20 during the 2016 Games.
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| Michael Phelps of USA, the greatest Olympian ever. |
Moving on to other sports, 4 new world records were created at the Olympic Stadium. The Jamaica and USA men’s and women’s relay team breaks the 4x100m record. While David Rudisha of Kenya and Elena Lashmanova breaks the world record in the 800m event and the 20km walk events. Overall, the athletics field didn’t spring many surprises. Jamaica still dominates the sprinting event. Team USA still won the highest gold medals in athletics event. The Russians showing themselves as one of the strong force in the track and field events by winning 8 gold medals, just behind USA’s 9 gold medals. China makes a clean sweep of all badminton and table tennis gold medals, which is probably not a good news for the sport as these two sports are considered as high risk sports of being “kick out” from the Olympic family. Rumors’ circulating that modern pentathlon is also another sport that will be reviewed. Squash, karate, baseball, softball, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding, wushu and beach soccer are the sports listed to be included in the 2020 Olympics. But only one of them is going to make their appearance in the 2020 Games. It’s hard for me to pick only one if I get a chance to pick. But I have to say the new sport that enters the Olympic family must be a sport that is widely recognized and played in all continents. I think the highest possibility is either baseball or squash as these sports are the ones which are slightly more popular compare to the others on the list. The IOC has plans starting from 2020 to introduce a new sport and remove an existing one. I think I fully support the idea. Athletics that excelled in other sports deserve some chance to perform in the Olympics.
Back to London, I could say I watch most of the events in the Olympics. I thought the British were superb in the cycling event. Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny win their respective gold medal, much to the delight of the home crowd. This was the last Olympic Games for Chris Hoy and what a way to end it by winning 2 gold medals, to add to his 4 gold medals he has won in the previous 2 Olympic Games. He's certainly is one of the cycling legends. A great talent nurtured by a good and effective system of the British. The Mexico football team shocked the Brazilians in the final, winning their country’s first football gold medal in their history. Probably the greatest comeback ever, the Russian men’s volleyball team downed 2 sets and saved 2 match points to beat the world no.1-Brazil in the final. Incredible fighting spirits from the Russians! Talking about Russia, they were so dominant in synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics events by winning all the gold medals in these events. While in Diving, despite China winning 6 out of the 8 gold medals, it’s glad to see there are more nations able to compete for medals in the event.
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| The Russia's men's volleyball team celebrated their victory after their incredible comeback. |
We all know Great Britain will perform well in this year’s Olympics, partly due to the high funding from government and home advantage. What surprises me was the Koreans performance, I mean both North and South Korea. The North Korea team win 4 gold medals which is their best ever result in an Olympics. (3 gold in weighlifting and 1 gold in Judo) Extra credit need to be given to the winners, given their poor and bad living conditions. The South Koreans was placed 5th in the medal tally. They win a total of 13 gold medals in the games. The best ever ranking position for them in the Olympic medal’s tally.
This should be considered as a great success for Korea after both the government and private companies in South Korea invested a total of $130 million over the past 4 years. USA still shows the world they are still the dominant force in sports. The Chinese contingent managed to win 38 gold medals in this year’s Olympics. Their best results achieved outside of China. The reduction of gold medals won was caused by a slightly poor performance by their shooting, weightlifting and gymnastics team.
With golf and rugby joining the Olympic family, there will be 28 sports at the Rio 2016 games. The city of Rio de Janeiro will be the first South American city to host the Olympics. It is always great to see a new country is hosting the Olympic Games. I think what interest me about the Rio games is that all events will be held in the city of Rio except for football. Sailing events which are normally held in sea-side cities away from the host city will be held just off the coast of Rio's iconic beaches. For the first time, a competition venue is built exclusively for Modern Pentathlon event. Unlike in Beijing or London, athletics need to travel from venue to venue to complete all 4 events (5 sports) in a day. Here in Rio, a modern pentathlon park will be built for the 2 day competition.
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| Sambadrome, the venue which held the annual Rio carnival will host the Archery and Marathon events in the 2016 Rio Games. |
For the first time, the opening and closing ceremony will be held in a different stadium with athletics. The opening and closing ceremony together with football will be held in the famous Maracana Stadium. The stadium will also host the finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The Sambadrome which host the annual Rio parade carnival will hold the Archery and Marathon event. There is no easy task for a country to host two major sporting events in 3 years’ time. Lots of problems are faced by the organizing committee. For example, constructions of new stadiums are behind schedule. Crime rates are still at a critical level. Connectivity is poor in the city center of Rio. Heavy traffic jams caused by poor public transportations and facilities. These are some of the problems that needed to be tackled by the committee before the games started.
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| The legendary Maracana Stadium will be the venue for the opening and closing ceremony in 2016. |
Brazil has allocated a total of USD$20.3 billion for the games. This includes public transport, construction and urban renewal projects. The fund allocated is $5 billion more than London 2012. But still it less than half the amount invested by Beijing in 2008. Reports estimated the figure for the costs of the 2008 Beijing Games is around $40 billion.
Being a sport fan, it is always hard to wait for another 4 years. I could say I enjoyed the London games very much. Overall, I think the London organizers did a great job. The official website has up to date results. Events are going on according to the time planned. The fans gave the athletics incredible support. The venues for the Olympics are new and well-planned. Bye London and thanks for the incredible games. #Rio 2016! See you there!
By,
Zhe Xu
13/08/2012
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