By Tenia Harris
JournaliZm
Every four years athletes who have trained and qualified for the Olympics compete against other countries to win medals – bronze, gold and silver. The Olympics take place in a different cities every four years. This year the Olympics were held in Paris, France.
The Olympics have a total of 40 sports: Basketball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Water Polo, Archery, Cycling, Breakdancing, Field Hockey, Gymnastics, Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Athletics, Badminton, Beach Volleyball, Cycling BMX Freestyling, Cycling BMX Freestyling, Cycling Mountain Biking, Cycling Road, Surfing, Track & Field, Golf, Handball, Equestrian, Canoe Slalom, Canoe Sprint Skateboarding, Sailing, Rowing, Judo, Taekwondo, Trampoline, Triathlon, Shooting, Weightlifting and Wrestling.
The first ever Olympics were held in the summer of 1896 in Athens, Greece. The Olympics have winter games as well as summer sports. Winter games started in 1921 at Chamonix, France; having a successful attendance of 10,004 people also according to Olympics.com.
It is exciting to watch athletics all over the world because of their hard work and dedication.
Athletes dream of going to the Olympics.
This year’s Olympics had more women winning medals than men. As said by NPR women won more than half of Team USA’s Olympics medals if American women had their own country with a total of 67 of Team USA 126 outdoing the men by 7 medals.
Swimmers Katie Ledecky, Tori Huske and Regan Smith are the most decorated athletes winning the most medals in that sport with a combined 28 medals in all.
Individual Regan Smith had five silver medals, two gold and one bronze, Tori had three gold and three silver and Katie had two gold and one silver this year medals but adding to her collection from previous medals she now has 14. Right behind them is Gymnastics champ Simone Biles who won three medals bring her to a total of seven medals in all. Sprinter Gaby Thomas won three medals. Another woman who won in the women’s US foil team – with the first gold winner in history, fencing athlete Lee Kiefer; along with her teammate Lauren Scruggs winning silver in fencing.
Other women’s dominated in the Olympics were Kris- ten Faulkner who became the first woman cyclist to win gold in track and road cycling, Jenn Valente defended her title becoming the most decorated U.S Olympic in Women Cycling ever, Diana Taurasi made history with winning six gold medals in Olympic women’s basketball, Oliva Reeves won gold in weightlifting for the first time since 2007, Evy Leibfarth earned Team USA’s first medal in canoe slalom, Amit Elor became the youngest wrestler to win gold in Olympic Team USA history and the Women’s Basket- ball team winning it eighth consecutive and 10th overall olympic gold medal setting the record for the longest Olympic gold medal streak in basketball.
Now the men made history too, with B-boy Victor winning the first medal for team USA in breakdancing with a bronze. Middle and long distance runner Grant Fisher was the first American man to win a medal in both 5,000 meter and 10,000 meter.
Noah Lyles became the first man to win in the 100-meter since 2004.
In closing, USA won 126 medals in all, 40 gold, 44 silver plus 42 bronze. Ending the Olympics right along with the closing ceremony which honored the United States team and celebrated with performances by H.E.R, Snoop Dogg, Billie Elish, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and the rapper Dr Dre.
There also was a special appearance from Tom Cruise along with fireworks at the end. One more even, the Paralympics are August 28- September 8, 2024. The 2028 Olympics head to Los Angeles, Cal. July 14, 2028-July 30, 2028.
Tenia Harris is an intern with Texas Metro News. A graduate of Tyler Junior
College, the aspiring journalist plans to attend either the University of North Texas or Wiley College.
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