What an Olympic games. With 1 week still to go, Rio 2016 has shown some of the best sport and talent yet. People worried before the games about various controversies: timing, the Zika virus, the doping scandal but Rio still pulled it off. And no more did the UK (or Team GB) pull it off than (almost) Super Saturday 2.
Many moons ago in London 2012, Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford all won gold medals in their respective sports within 46 minutes of each other on - you guessed it - a Saturday. This momentous day (which also saw various rowers and cyclists win gold) was dubbed 'Super Saturday' due to the super display of talent from Team GB. Farah, Ennis-Hill and Rutherford all competed in Rio 2016 on a Saturday. So could the exhilaration, support and hard work lead to gold medals again? Mo Farah was competing in the men's 10,000m run, which equated to 25 times round the 400m running track. The stakes were high for the man who won both the 10,000m and 5,000m in London and the fact he is the only person to have ever beaten 'The Cube' - an intense TV show where contestants complete difficult tasks...in a cube. I digress, basically the stakes and expectations were high. He started well but then fell over halfway through after tripping up a fellow athlete. Mentally this would have been tough and some may have given up, but Mo managed to battle on, get to the front and win gold. Utterly superb. He said the race was run for his kids - a great motivation. What an amazing run they will be able to watch from their Dad in the years to come. Jessica Ennis-Hill was taking part in the women's heptathlon: 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump and 800m. The better you do in each event, the more points you receive. At the end the points are added up to work out final placings. Like Farah, having won gold at London, the stakes were always going to be tough. For Ennis-Hill even tougher, having given birth to a child and working her way back to fitness to take part. This year she won silver, losing gold to Belgian Nafi Thiam. However this is still an amazing achievement for someone who has worked so hard and had to be on top form in all 7 sports along with all the challenges of being a mother. This may be her last Olympics and she can finish her sporting career proud if so. Greg Rutherford managed to win bronze in the long jump - a sport that always fascinated me as it seems athletes were jumping into sand. Why didn't they just go to a beach, my young self pondered. Though Rutherford was disappointed to win 'just' bronze, it does mean he is the 3rd best at long jump in the world, Simply unbelievable. Though Super Saturday 2016 wasn't 3 gold medals again, all 3 still managed a medal which is remarkable. So, what do all these achievements mean? Clearly, joy for the athletes, their families, friends, trainers, everyone around them to see someone they care about succeed. For Britain, a proud moment to see our sportsman and women do well across the world. For other countries, a sense of congratulations, admiration but a sense of motivation to do better at the next games. For entertainment and enjoyment, exactly that. The Olympics entertains so many millions every single time. People watching may feel inclined to try a sport themselves, to see if they can achieve the standard through hard work, grit, determination and perseverance. These qualities can apply to all other walks of life too. So whether it's sport, education, trying to get a job or just succeeding: the Olympics really can inspire a generation.
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