This was an incredible Olympics. Maybe I am biased with this being a similar time zone and the first Olympics I have attended since London, but it feels like the best Olympics since London. The incredible venues were second to none and it was the vociferous support that the athletes received that really put this to another level. The stands were packed and the fans were loud, even before you put a French contestant in place. When a French athlete was competing, the atmosphere was hard to match.
In terms of the sporting competitors, it felt like the end of an era. There is a long list of stars who either have discussed retirement or are potentially the right age to look at retiring before Los Angeles. That list includes Adam Peaty, Andy Murray, Arlen Lopez, Aaron Szilagyi, Caleb Dressel, Chen Meng, Grace Brown, He Bingjao, Joshua Cheptegei, Julio Cesar La Cruz, Katie Harrington, Katie Ledecky, Kevin Durant, Lasha Talakhadze, LeBron James, Lee Kiefer, Li Fabin, Liu Yang, Mijain Lopez, Natsumi Tsunoda, Novak Djokovic, Panipak Wongpattanakit, PR Sreejesh, Rafael Nadal, Ryan Crouser, Sarah Sjostrom, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Simone Biles, Stephen Curry and Teddy Riner. Some of these, especially the Americans, may intend to compete in Los Angeles but it does feel somewhat like that set of names will now only decline. We did get some new stars emerging though who will hopefully only continue to further their legacy in Los Angeles.
The additions to sports largely went well with kayak cross and speed climbing both massive successes. Breaking was probably less of a success, with Raygun going viral for a poor routine. Los Angeles will see a number of new sports enter the fray. Cricket is being added to appeal to the Asian market but let’s see how important this is to players as that will be the main decider on how much of a success that is. Baseball and softball returning both seem unnecessary. Flag football will be one that I am intrigued to watch, but I tend to think it will struggle to cement itself. Squash feels like the type of sport that should thrive as an Olympic sport. Lacrosse interests me and we will see how it does.
In terms of my predictions, my results were 564 medalists correct (54.2%) and 288 perfect predictions (27.7%). My strongest sport was weightlifting ahead of climbing, rowing and diving. Down at the bottom were tennis and shooting. In terms of the medal table, I was correct on the top two and almost got both gold medal tallies correct. Great Britain and France, I was high on total medals and gold medals. I was high on Japan's total medals but they won more gold medals than I expected. My biggest miss in the top ten was South Korea. They won almost ten more gold medals than I predicted. I predicted Kyrgyzstan and Turkey to both win four gold medals and instead, they didn’t win any. To see individual breakdowns, follow the links. Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, BMX, Boxing, Breaking, Canoeing, Climbing, Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Football, Golf, Handball, Hockey, Judo, Modern Pentathlon, Mountain Bike, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Road Cycling, Rowing, Rugby Sevens, Sailing, Shooting, Skateboarding, Swimming, Surfing, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Track Cycling, Trampoline, Triathlon, Volleyball, Water Polo, Weightlifting and Wrestling
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