Rio 2016: 5 things we learned from Day 8
To those of you who reckon you’re a bit long in the tooth (myself included) to fulfil your dream of competing in an Olympic games, here’s a story to give you hope. It’s never too late to make your debut, “Bring it on” is what Trinidad & Tobago rower Felice Chow (who’s 39 years young seeing as you asked) thought as she donned her country’s colours and picked up the oars. So what’s taken her so long? Well, apparently she’d been taking a PhD in pharmacology for the last ten years. A keen rower when she was younger, she recently got back into it, started winning masters events and thought to herself, “You know what, I proper fancy a bit of this Olympics lark” (that’s not a direct quote, by the way).
Team GB’s athletes didn’t quite hit the heights of London 2012’s ‘Super Saturday’, Rio being more a case of “Job Done Saturday”. In the Heptathlon, Jessica Ennis-Hill (who hinted at retirement in a post-event interview) won silver, after being beaten into second place by a remarkable gold medal winning performance by Belgian Nafi Thiam. Greg Rutherford, another of the gold medal holy trinity back in 2012, managed an emotional bronze in the long jump, before Mo Farah saved the best ‘til last and made history by becoming the first British track and field athlete to win three gold medal titles as he cruised to victory in the 10,000 metres.
The record books underwent yet another re-write yesterday as Laura Trott became the first British woman to win three gold medals after Team GB’s women broke a world record and beat the US to lift the title in the team pursuit. However, Trott’s work in Rio isn’t done quite yet - she must put the party on hold for the moment, as she has a chance of adding yet another gold to her collection when she defends her title in the omnium this coming Tuesday.
There are 28 sports being contested at these Olympic games, but guess which one still matters most to the host nation, Brazil? I’ll give you a clue – it’s not Greco-Roman wrestling or BMX, but there’s every chance it might be football or “soccer” as some people who should know better, call it. Brazil have taken a while to warm to their task, but are now through to the semi-finals with Barcelona forward and golden boy, Neymar finally opening his account in the tournament to force a 2-0 win over Colombia.
It’s widely accepted that an Olympic athlete has to suffer at some point along the way to reach the very heights of their sport: early mornings; long, arduous training sessions; not being able to eat any cake, crisps or even visit the pub. And of course, there’s the bad hair days. US diver Abigail Johnston has threatened to bill the Olympic authorities if the infamous green pool leaves unsightly stains on her precious locks and she has to have a special hairdo to correct a follicle malfunction.
