I have to admit, now that the Olympics are over, I feel a bit of a void in my life – do you? It’s incredible how the Olympic games bring people together – even your family – to watch nightly events and cheer on your favorites. With all those USA hometown heroes out there, it’s tough not to notice how many are women.
Watching the Olympics this year, I was especially blown away by all the female athletes and everything they have accomplished, and I found myself cheering on every USA woman like I’d known her for years. Their dedication and spirit was pretty infectious and, as it turns out, many of them were pretty successful at this year’s games. From golf to track, swimming to gymnastics – and everything in between, we had one awesome group of women representing the USA.
The other day, I stumbled upon a great article in Variety Magazine, which didn’t just hone in on the USA’s female Olympic stars, but talked about why women in general were so successful in this year’s Olympics. In a nutshell – they banded together and supported one another. And, that’s pretty cool. Here’s an excerpt from the article, you can read the full piece here.
“Because the real story of this Olympics — and maybe of this era of Olympic Games — has been about the women. At New York Magazine, Ann Friedman wrote about how the Olympics has been proof positive of the Shine Theory — that notion that individual women succeed when all women succeed. That’s a notion that is, of course, antithetical to the entire concept of the Olympics, which is about competition and one-upmanship. And yet this Olympics has been flooded with women from many different countries who are, in stark contrast to the epic feud between Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, not just friendly but actively supporting each other. The most iconic image from this Olympics might be not any winner on a podium or a champion seizing victory but American runner Abbey D’Agostino helping up New Zealand runner Nikki Hamblin during a qualifying heat for the 5000m.” (via Variety.com)
And, the news about Team USA Women keeps getting better – they are absolute super stars.
“The United States brought home more gold medals than any other country at the Rio Games this summer. As has become usual, the U.S.’s excellence owes much to the success of American women. In Rio, the U.S. women shined with 61 of 121 medals, including 27 out of 46 golds (59 percent). The U.S. was also atop the medal table at the end of the previous Summer Games, in London, and women were responsible for more than half the gold medals that year as well.” (via FiveThirtyEight)
Here are a few highlights:
Are you as proud as I am of the women of Team USA and all the female athletes who competed in Rio 2016? Who was your favorite?
