đââď¸ And the gold goes to...
Good morning!Â
We love the Olympics, the stories, the records, the performances, the defeat, the elation, and this edition didn’t fell short on amazing feats and moments.
With that in mind, we created our own track & field Olympic podiumâthree athletes whose outstanding performances inspired us and defied the odds of what is possible.
Without further ado, here is the HRW Olympic Podium.
Happy running, đ
HONORABLE MENTION
Feel-Good MOMENTS
Before we go into our podium reveal, we have to share these two inspiring and unforgettable moments of the track & field Olympics.
Can we have two golds?
Please take 2:30 minutes to watch this epic moment of two athletes sharing an Olympic gold medal. The reaction of the Italian athlete makes us smile every time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I24B5AV7tA
Come on dude!
Watching the Dutch silver medalist runner encouraging his Belgian training partner to push in the final meters of the Marathon is something we will never forget.
He compromised his own race waiting for his friend. It’s something you only see at the Olympics.
BRONZE MEDAL
Molly Seidel Wins Bronze
Molly Seidel Wins Bronze
27-year old Molly Siedel shocked the world by winning the bronze medal at the Marathon. She pushed and was able to withstand the pain better than her competitors, simply outstanding.
A few interesting facts:
- It was only Molly’s 3rd Marathon ever.
- When she was in the lead group, the other four runners had personal records 7+ minutes faster than her.
- Shoes are not everything. She didn’t run on Nike shoes. She used the Puma Deviate Nitro Elite.
If you have ever wondered how an Olympian warms up for a marathon, here is what she did:
https://www.strava.com/activities/5632072999
Finally, if you want to analyze her full Marathon, here is her Strava run:Â https://www.strava.com/activities/5750670674
SILVER MEDAL
Andre de Grasse 3 Medals
With his three medals at the Tokyo Olympics, de Grasse became Canada’s most decorated male athlete with six medals in total.
What impressed us the most is that he has never missed the podium in any of his events at the Olympics. Not even when Usain Bolt was competing, leaving pretty much only two spots left on the podium in the 100m and 200m.
He is only 26 years old and is looking to keep his record intact at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Andre de Grasse Olympic Medals:
Rio 2016
- 100m – Bronze
- 200m – Silver
- 4x100m relay – Bronze
Tokyo 2020 (2021)
- 100m – Bronze
- 200m – Gold
- 4x100m relay – Bronze
GOLD MEDALL
Sifan Hassan Impressive Performance
Let’s start with the 2021 Olympic accomplishments, and then we’ll go into the interesting facts.
- 10,000m – Gold
- 5,000m – Gold
- 1,500m Bronze
One thing that caught our eye, and one of the reasons she took gold on our podium, is that in her second race in the Olympics, the 1,500m qualifier round, she fell down on the last lap of the event and got back up to win that raceâthat shows tremendous mental strength.
Her entire journey at the Olympics took 9 days and 6 total racesâtwo rounds of 5,000m, three rounds of 1,500m, and one of 10,000m.
She did 61.25 laps on the track, which is more than 24.4 kilometers (15.25 miles), just over a half marathon. Quite simply one of the greatest feats in the history of distance running.
Hassan became just the second woman in history to win three individual track medals at the same Olympics. (The other was also Dutch: Fanny Blankers-Koen, who won gold in the 100, 200, 80-meter hurdles, and 4×100-meter relay at London’s 1948 Games).
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