History Awesome / OlympicGames

* Ireland's Katie Taylor winning the inaugural women's lightweight boxing event, becoming the first ever Olympic female lightweight champion.

** Here is Canada's similar [[https://youtu.be/effb2JYiKXM response]].
** Germany may as well have been flipping the bird with [[http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/02/07/germany-olympic-outfits-opening-ceremony_n_4746511.html their uniforms]].
* Indian luger Shiva Keshavan [[http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/indian-luger-shiva-keshavan-crashes-then-makes-amazing-save crashing and recovering]]. At the other end of the rankings, Russian Albert Devchenko and Italian Armin Zoeggeler get silver and bronze in it...''at age 42 and 40, respectively''.

** He may not have won a medal, but 17-year-old Michael Christian Martinez deserves a mention on this page for teaching himself to skate in the Philippines--a country that has a grand total of three ice rinks--and succeeding in becoming the first-ever Filipino athlete to qualify for any Winter Olympics and also the first-ever Southeast Asian figure skater at the Winter Games, where he qualified for the free skate and scored the best out of his opening group.
* Swiss skier Dominique Gisin just barely qualified for the 2014 Sochi Games after a career that included ''nine'' knee surgeries and a horrific crash in her only run in the 2010 Vancouver Games, which resulted in a concussion and immediate withdrawal from those Olympics. However, in Sochi, she has the run of her life, posting a score that was ultimately tied by Slovenia's Tina Maze. [[EarnYourHappyEnding After all she went through, she won the gold medal]] [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments and immediately called her grandparents when she won]].

* Japanese Noriaki Kasai gets a silver medal in ski jumping...''at age 41''. Against jumpers who are at least between 15-20 years younger than him. The only one who could beat him was the Pole Kamil Stoch, ''and with a minuscule difference'' that mostly came from his first jump.

* Latvia upset Switzerland in men's ice hockey during the qualifiers, and then went on to hold gold-medal favorites ''Canada'' to a 1-1 tie up until the last several minutes of the game. Special credit to their coach, Ted Nolan, who is a Native Canadian from northern Ontario who has inspired the players with his positive coaching style, and to Latvian backup goalie Kristers Gudlevskis, who stopped ''55'' shots from the Canadians--compared to Latvia's 16 total shots on goal--and needed medical attention after collapsing from exhaustion and dehydration at the end of the game. ''That'' is an Olympic performance!
* In a heart-stomping, sweat-breaking minutes until the end of regulation time, the Canadian women's ice hockey team comes back from trailing 2-0 to tie the gold medal game against the U.S., winning 3-2 in overtime, making this their ''fourth consecutive'' victory at the Winter Olympics. This also makes Canadian forwards Caroline Ouellette, Jayna Hefford and Hayley Wickenheiser--who are considered the greatest female ice hockey player in the world--the first athletes in the sport to achieve four back-to-back gold medals.

* The Canadian men's curling team, led by skip Brad Jacobs, winning gold over Great Britain 9-3, making it the first time Canada has won gold in both men and women's curling. In a lesser moment of awesome for the British team, the silver was their first medal in men's curling since the sport had been re-introduced as an Olympic event in the 1998 Nagano Games, and Great Britain's fourth medal overall--tying their record Winter Olympic medal haul.

* Mao Asada skating probably the best long program of her career after having a complete disaster in the short program that included a fall and an omission of a required element. The long program included landing the triple axel--the hardest jump a female can perform and the jump Mao fell on in her short program. She cried TearsOfJoy, and her brilliant long program pulled her all the way from 16th place to 6th place.

* Hong Kong absolutely ''pops off'' this year, having a higher medal tally in this Olympics (6) than all previous years ''combined'' (3).

** In the Table Tennis women's team event, Doo Hoi Kem, Lee Ho Ching and Minnie Soo Wai Yam defeating the German team 3-1, securing the city a bronze medal to join the lineup.

** Sarah Lee Wai Sze coming in third in the Women's sprint event in Cycling, bringing home the ''third'' bronze medal for Hong Kong this year.

* Sanne Wevers wins the first ''ever'' individual Olympic medal for the Netherlands in women's gymnastics with an incredibly difficult and gorgeously performed routine on the balance beam--and it's ''gold''.

* Danell Leyva originally wasn't even supposed to compete at the Olympics--he was brought in as an alternate on the U.S. men's gymnastics team after one of its members became injured--but he made the most of his unexpected opportunity by winning two silver medals in one day on parallel bars and horizontal bar to become the most successful U.S. male gymnast in the 2016 Rio Games.

* Michael Phelps had won all the gold medals he competed for...until it was time for the 100m butterfly competition. Then, the Singaporean [[PromotedFanboy Joseph Schooling]]--[[HilariousInHindsight who]] had [[http://images.thepostgame.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/story_main/phelps-schooling-main-compressor.jpg taken a photo with Phelps in 2008]]--blew Phelps, his rival Chad Le Clos ''and'' the Hungarian Laszlo Cseh [[{{Pun}} out of the water]], winning the gold, which was the first Olympic gold ''ever'' for Singapore, and setting a new Olympic Record. To be fair to Phelps, Le Clos and Cseh, ''all three'' tied for silver, which is noteworthy in itself.
* Katie Ledecky accomplishes a mission she set out years ago and claims four gold medals in Rio, in the process becoming only the second female swimmer in history, after Debbie Meyer in the 1968 Mexico City Games, to sweep the distance freestyles--the 200m, 400m, and 800m. And if you thought her performance in London was impressive, in the 400m and 800m, she literally left everyone else in her wake[[note]]The gap between gold and silver was nearly five seconds for the 400m and ''over eleven seconds'' for the 800m[[/note]] and took ''nearly two seconds'' off each race's world record. In the process, she maintained an impressive undefeated streak in individual finals: Starting with that first gold in London 4 years earlier, she was in 15 finals in international competition[[note]]Including the Olympics, the World Championships, and the Pan-Pacific Championships[[/note]]...''and won every one of them''.[[note]]On top of that, many argued that none of the races in which she'd won Olympic gold was her best event! That would be the 1500 m, which didn't make its Olympic debut for women until 2020... [[ReleaseDateChange/COVID19PandemicRelatedExamples make that 2021]].[[/note]]

* Puerto Rico obtains its first gold medal thanks to tennis player Monica Puig, who beat ''three'' Grand Slam champions--Garbiñe Muguruza, Petra Kvitová, and Angelique Kerber--to win it.

* Three of Icho's teammates--Eri Tosaka[[note]]48 kg[[/note]], Risako Kawai[[note]]63 kg[[/note]], and Sara Dosho[[note]]69 kg[[/note]], also won gold in Rio. Kawai dominated her match, not conceding a single point in her final, while both Tosaka and Dosho earned critical two point take-downs in the final seconds of their matches[[note]]Tosaka won 3-2, and Dosho won 2-2 since she was the more recent wrestler in her bout to score[[/note]].
* Ahmad Abughaush winning for Jordan its very first medal in their entire history, for Taekwondo - 68kg. And it was a gold!
* Kimia Alizadeh Zonoozi became the first woman to win a medal for Iran: A bronze in Taekwondo - 57kg. A Muslim, she wore her traditional ''khimār'' scarf under her helmet.[[note]]Islam allows women to participate in any sport as long as they can cover. Several companies now offer appropriate sportswear for Muslim female competitors.[[/note]]

* In their previous twelve tries to gain Olympic gold, the Brazilian men's soccer team had never succeeded. Cue the 2016 Rio Games for the gold medal, when, after a 1-1 slug-fest against Germany--the same country which had destroyed the host Brazil 7-1 in the 2014 World Cup--the game heads to penalty kicks. With the count at 4-4 the Germans suffer a blocked kick. Neymar Jr., the Brazilian captain, comes up for his last penalty kick, and makes the shot, securing Brazil's first soccer Olympic gold medal ever...''on home ground''. [[https://youtu.be/-Jmjn_dJt_4 Here's the clip]].
* Repeating the women four years before, the Brazilian men's volleyball--which is probably the country's second favorite sport after football--were nearly eliminated in the group round. Despite the female team suffering a TearJerker elimination the day before[[note]]They had not lost a set in the group stage...only to lose the quarter-finals in the tie-break to a China team who had been struggling--and went on to beat two {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s for the gold[[/note]], the men handily beat Argentina in the quarter-finals--to the crowd's delight, as the neighbors are an ArchEnemy in soccer and TheRival anywhere else. Come a semi-finals match against Russia, who in the 2012 final against Brazil [[https://www.olympic.org/news/russia-stun-brazil-for-volleyball-gold-london-2012-volleyball had a staggering comeback to get gold]], Brazil steamrolls, 3-0. Final with Italy, who beat them in the group stage, and had a huge semi-finals comeback on favorite United States? [[CurbStompBattle Another 3-0!]] It was even more Awesome for Brazil's libero Sérgio Santos, who managed to be chosen tournament MVP at age 40.
* Great Britain win their first gold medal ''ever'' in women's field hockey. Against the Netherlands. Who are ranked number one in the world. Mostly thanks to their amazing goalkeeper Maddie Hinch, who saved every goal in the penalty shootout. Two of the members of the British team--Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh--also created history by being the first same-sex married couple to win gold medals.
* And on the same day as the above, Nick Skelton--who has competed in ''seven'' Olympic Games--wins gold in the individual showjumping...at the age of '''58'''. What makes this even more amazing? Not only did he have a hip replacement back in 2011, but he '''broke his neck''' in 2000 and was told that another fall would kill him.

* The ''entire'' U.S. women's gymnastics team. Their performance that night was so spectacular that they would have won even ''without'' Kerri Strug's valiant second vault--they had that many points and were that far ahead of the competition that even Moceanu's two falls and Kerri's one didn't dent their lead.[[note]]At the time, Kerri and the rest of the team didn't know this--Kerri was slated to vault before the last two Russian women had gone on floor exercise, and both were capable of extremely high scores.[[/note]]

-->"[[https://youtu.be/CUZYpi1hZs0?si=a_anoXPfSo2yBX4d&t=20 But look who gets it next.]]"
-->"The Greatest!"
-->"Ohhhh my!"

* Hong Kong windsurfer Lee Lai-shan's gold medal win in the women's mistral, the first ever medal for the former British colony since its first appearance at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Her famous declaration that "Hong Kong athletes are not rubbish!" is still an enduring rallying cry for the city, which, despite its handover to China, has also inspired its subsequent generations of athletes and the general public.
* Naim Süleymanoğlu winning his third consecutive gold medal in weightlifting in a historic battle against Greece's Valerios Leonidis, with the two of them setting records in the 64 kg division several times during the event. In the end, Leonidis set the clean and jerk record at 187.5 kg--which Süleymanoğlu also matched, but Leonidis held the record due to his lower body weight at the time--while Süleymanoğlu set the combined record at 335 kg.

* The Nigerian men's soccer team, after qualifying from the group stage, faced off against Mexico, Brazil and Argentina in succession. In the semi-finals match against Brazil--to whom they lost 1-0 in the group stages--they overcame a 3-1 halftime deficit to level at the 90th minute, before going on to win by golden goal. Nigeria also scored in the 90th minute against Argentina, this time a game-winning goal to give Nigeria Africa's first ever gold in the sport.

* The Czech National Ice Hockey Team wins the gold medal. In 1998, the NHL allowed to have a break for the Nagano Games for the first time. The national ice-hockey teams could send their very best players and build all-star ideal teams, and Canada and the U.S. were nearly 100% sure that they would be playing the final. However, the U.S. lost to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals--with the Czechs four unanswered goals after being down 1-0 after the first period--and Canada was subsequently beaten by the Czechs in the semi-finals in a nerve-biting shootout. The Czech national team won the whole thing. The Czech national ice hockey team is usually solid and there are always some great players with lots of ice hockey heart, but Nagano took it up a notch. Needless to say, everybody in the Czech Republic was watching, every major square in Prague was full of people, and everybody was participating, or at least watching, their welcoming ceremony. It created several [[MemeticMutation memes]] and started a new golden era of Czech ice hockey. It is fondly remembered as one of the most awesome moments of Czech sport ever.

--> ''Beating hearts, beating hearts''
--> ''Come as one, come as one --''
--> ''This is Indian country! This is Indian country!''
** And at the end of that first song, "Unity", the five drum circles arranged themselves on the ice to form the first appearance of the Olympic rings.

* The 2004 Athens opening ceremony deserves special mention, as they manage to summarize the history of Greece--which began around 1750 BCE--in a matter of minutes. '''Without any narration'''.

* Canadian cross-country skier Sara Renner broke a ski pole during the women's team sprint event, and finished only because she was quickly handed a replacement ski pole--by the coach of the Norwegian ski team, Bjørnar Håkensmoen. Because of this supreme act of sportsmanship by Håkensmoen, Renner and fellow skier Beckie Scott won the silver medal in the event. Adding to the significance of this act, their silver medal finish meant that the Norwegian team ended up finishing fourth in this event, instead of winning a bronze medal.

* American and Canadian women were dominating ice hockey for as long as the international scene began: At every world championship and Olympics, both nations were either a runner-up or tournament champion. However, the 2006 Turin Games saw a shift, as the Swedish team defeated the Americans 3-2 in the semi-finals, sending them to the gold medal game against Canada. This was the first time in women's international ice hockey history--excluding the "Four Nations Cup"[[note]]Composed of Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States[[/note]]--that another team besides the Americans or Canadians made it to the finals.[[labelnote:Postscript]]This wouldn't happen again until the 2019 World Championships, in which Finland took down Canada in the semifinals before a controversial overtime loss to the USA in the final.[[/labelnote]]

* While many people will forever remember Michael Phelps winning a record eight gold medals, and also tying Heiden and Scherbo with five golds in individual events, the greatest feat of aquatics ''in the history of swimming'' goes to Jason Lezak.[[note]]Yes, ''still''. His final split of 46.06 seconds is the fastest 100m freestyle split ''ever'' as of 2020. Not even Michael Phelps has swam it that fast.[[/note]] In the 4*100 freestyle relay, the Americans were favored just slightly ahead of the French. The French, namely Alain Bernard, decided to talk some trash--note that the following is paraphrased--[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Hall_Jr.#1996-2000 "We're going to smash them like guitars"]]. After the third leg of 100m in the four-man relay, Bernard had a one body length lead on Jason Lezak. In the last 25m of the total of 400m race, Lezak came back and won the race by 8/100ths of a second. [[https://youtu.be/HcaG245UT30 Here it is]]. Of course, Michael Phelps' eight gold medals accomplishment is still something well worth going into detail about, especially about how he won one of them with ''water in his goggles'' and another one by a mere .01 second.

-> This irritated Kozakiewicz who, after jumping 5.70 metres, higher than any other competitor that day, [[TakeThat showed the bras d'honneur gesture in defiance to the jeering spectators. He then repeated the gesture after clearing 5.75 metres which ensured his victory over the local favourite, Konstantin Volkov. ]] He finally confirmed his dominance over the competition by breaking the world record with 5.78 meters. This was the first time since 1920 that the world record in pole vault was broken at the Olympic Games.

-> The photos of the incident circled the globe, with the exception of the Soviet Union and its satellites, although the event was broadcast live on TV in many countries of the Eastern Bloc. While international observers varied in their reaction to the incident, Kozakiewicz's act received much support in Polish society, which resented Soviet control over Eastern Europe (Poland was in the midst of labour strikes that led to the creation of the labour union Solidarity less than two months later). [[SoreLoser After the 1980 Olympics ended, the Soviet ambassador to Poland demanded that Kozakiewicz be stripped of his medal over his "insult to the Soviet people". ]][[RefugeInAudacity The official response of the Polish government was that Kozakiewicz's arm gesture had been an involuntary muscle spasm caused by his exertion. ]]

* At the Games themselves, the stand-out athlete was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Blankers-Koen Fanny Blankers-Koen]], a Dutch athlete who won four gold medals--the 100m, 200m, 80m hurdles and 4*100m relay. It is quite possible that she could have won more medals[[note]]She had six world records at the time of the Games[[/note]], but the rules in force at the time prevented women from competing in more than three individual athletic events. Her feats were made more remarkable by the fact that she was written off because she was 30 years old. Whilst being involved in sports in your fourth decade is commonplace today, it was virtually unheard of in the 1940s.[[/folder]]

* First Olympics in which the USSR, the largest black horse in world sport at this moment, participated - and took second place behind only the USA in both total and gold medal counts.

* Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Squaw Valley Olympics is that ''they happened at all''. At the time the Games were awarded, the resort at Squaw Valley consisted only of one chair lift, two rope tows, and a fifty-room lodge - all in an unincorporated community. Compare this to other past Winter Olympics venues, which were all held in established resort towns. The whole thing was put together in four years; most Olympics now are awarded seven years in advance, and even then incomplete venues are common.

** Also, the fact that Owens was black didn't matter that much to German people or the Nazis, as he didn't live in Germany and racial laws focused most prominently on Jewish and Romani people (black people were not a big enough minority in Germany at the time to be "matter of concerns" for the Nazis, less than 30000 people in total, though they ended up being subjected to sporadic deportations and sterilizations). He could sit wherever he wanted on German public transportation, got huge cheers from the mainly German crowds and was featured on equal footing with the other athletes in Creator/LeniRiefenstahl's ''Film/{{Olympia}}''. His victory in the long jump happened because he got a tip from a German opponent he befriended, Lutz Long. And contrary to popular belief, he was ''not'' snubbed by UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. Hitler was told by the Olympic Committee that it was improper for the leader of the host country to congratulate the athletes. Owens even said Hitler waved to him as they met in passing. He waved back[[note]]Owens '''was snubbed''' by the President upon his return to the U.S. Roosevelt never acknowledged him in public or private.[[/note]].[[/folder]]

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens]] winning gold in the Olympics organized ''by UsefulNotes/NaziGermany''. To put this in perspective, a black man went to the country where [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler its leader]] declared that black people were biologically inferior to white people, especially Germans. He then handed Hitler's ass to him--along with those of all the German athletes--and dispelled the Aryan myth in front of the entire world. When ''Sports Illustrated'' made a list of the greatest Olympic moments, they put Owens' showing in the 1936 Olympics on top--above UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli's surprise appearance at the 1996 Atlanta Games, above Bob Beamon's record jump at the 1968 Mexico City Games, and above Michael Phelps winning ''eight gold medals in one Olympic games'' at the 2008 Beijing Games. Owens is still widely considered to be a national hero to this day.

** The silver medalist, Australian Peter Norman, wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge--given to him by U.S. rower Paul Hoffman--to show solidarity with Smith and Carlos. Considering Australia wasn't too keen on that sort of thing, especially at that time, it counts as a [=MoA=] for him.

[[folder: Moscow 1980]]

-->"[[https://youtu.be/uklmvMYaMk0?t=20 But look who gets it next.]]"

* The men's 4×100 freestyle relay is probably one of the best swimming relay races of all time, with Australia winning against USA (who had never been defeated since the race's introduction in 1964. To top it off, both teams finished almost 2 seconds under world record pace, with Ian Thorpe just barely edging out Gary Hall Jr to take the gold and set a new world record.

* The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan a year earlier saw a large-scale (65 nations) USA-led boycott of these Games, with some nations only parading under the Olympic Flag, so these Games were dominated by the USSR and East Germany. A lot of world records got broken, though. Other standouts include British decathlete Daley Thompson breaking Jenner's record en route to gold (and later repeating four years later) and Cuban boxer Teófilo Stevenson becoming the only heavyweight to win three consecutive golds. Even though the boycott was made on its behalf, Afghanistan ironically participated and later joined the 1984 boycott (it had a pro-Soviet regime at the time, after all).

* Indian Neeraj Chopra winning gold in the men's javelin throw, becoming the first gold win by India at this Olympics, and the first gold ever won for India in a track-and-field event (also the first track-and-field medal won by India in general since it declared independence from Great Britain). In the process, he brought the country's medal haul to seven, its all-time best at the Summer Olympics.

* Media coverage of the U.S. women's gymnastics team focused heavily on Dominique Moceanu and Dominique Dawes, but after a two-fall showing from Moceanu, Kerri Strug was the last gymnast to vault on the U.S. team rotation. She proceeded to fall on ''her'' rear on her first vault and badly tore two ligaments. Nonetheless, when told by coach Béla Károlyi that she had to vault once more for enough points to clinch the gold, she calmly walked back to the end of the runway, vaulted again, and [[https://youtu.be/Bwa5Bf656As appeared to stick her landing on one foot]][[note]]Actually both feet, but she immediately pulled up the injured foot[[/note]]. [[PluckyGirl Her courageous vault]], which tore another ligament in her already injured ankle, sealed the first U.S. women's team gold in Olympic history, and marked the first time since the dawn of the Iron Curtain that women's team gold was won by a nation outside the Eastern Bloc. [[HarsherInHindsight Although]], [[http://www.espn.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/51 it later turned out]] her vault ''wasn't'' needed to win gold, but they didn't know it at that point.

* Surya Bonaly doing an illegal back-flip and finishing her program with her back to the judges, ending her career by basically telling them "Screw you" for what she felt was years of unfair scoring due her being an atypical skater--black, with an "athletic" style instead of the usual winsome faerie princess: garish costumes and music. [[https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/xw5357/surya-bonaly-ice-skater-back-flip Surya explains her rationale and the skating world's problem with her image here.]]

* Ruby Galindo's beautiful performance to Swan Lake which has become something of legend in the skating world. And boy, is it not hard to see why. [[https://allekha.tumblr.com/post/653063475322585088/today-lets-talk-about-rudy-galindo-his-victory This post]] goes into further detail just how much a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome it was for Rudy personally.

* The Miracle on The Mat. Rulon Gardner was never a legend in American wrestling up to this point--he was good but never great, but through sheer hard work, he found himself in the Olympic finals against the legendary Alexander Karelin, a man who had not lost in international competition for thirteen years, hadn't even been scored on for seven years, and had already won three Olympic gold medals in the 1988 Seoul Games, the 1992 Barcelona Games, and the 1996 Atlanta Games. [[https://youtu.be/sXDXl3Vo84g This video]] shows the resulting match perfectly.

** The beginning of the ceremony had an announcement as follows: "Ladies and gentlemen: Tonight we continue a tradition that began seventy-eight years ago," followed by a fanfare accompanying a sequence of skaters representing each of the previous Winter Games in chronological order, with the announcer calling out the year, followed by the host city's name. Each skater was dressed in a costume based upon what was worn at those Winter Games[[note]]Based on photos from each of them[[/note]] carrying a flag with the year and the city's name, each flag a slightly different color, each a bit warmer and brighter color than the last, and then when the final flag-bearer skated in, "Two-Thousand and Two: SALT LAKE CITY!" and the Salt Lake City flag is designed to look like blazing flames[[note]]The Salt Lake City games' slogan was "Light the Fire Within"[[/note]]. And that was the moment that the first of that opening ceremony's many elaborate and beautiful pyrotechnics were set off.
** Also noteworthy: when President George W. Bush declared the games open, he did so '''not''' from a private box in the VIP section, but standing amid the American athletes in their bleachers. This led later to a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}} when one of the American athletes dialed their mother on their cell-phone and handed it to the President. Judging by the looks on their faces, the surprised parent was incredulous.

* Michael Phelps had won all the gold medals he competed for...until it was time for the 100m butterfly competition. Then, the Singaporean [[PromotedFanboy Joseph Schooling]]--[[HilariousInHindsight who]] had [[http://images.thepostgame.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/story_main/phelps-schooling-main-compressor.jpg taken a photo with Phelps in 2008]]--blew Phelps, his rival Chad Le Clos ''and'' the Hungarian Laszlo Cseh [[IncrediblyLamePun out of the water]], winning the gold, which was the first Olympic gold ''ever'' for Singapore, and setting a new Olympic Record. To be fair to Phelps, Le Clos and Cseh, ''all three'' tied for silver, which is noteworthy in itself.

* Chen Lu is frequently overlooked because of all the UsefulNotes/{{Tonya|Harding}}/Nancy/Oksana hype, but when she won the bronze, she earned the first Olympic figure skating medal for China and put the sport on the map for her country--with the exception of the Sochi Games, China has earned 1-2 medals in the sport at every Olympics since, but in ''pairs'' skating. Lu remains the only female from China to earn an Olympic figure skating medal.

[[/folder]]

* The men's 4×100 freestyle relay is probably one of the best swimming relay races of all time, with Australia winning against USA who had never been defeated since the race's introduction in 1964. To top it off both teams finished almost 2 seconds under world record pace with Ian Thorpe just barely edging out Gary Hall Jr.

* Cathy Freeman won the women's 400m events, making her the ''second'' ever Aboriginal Australian Olympic champion [[note]]the first being her teammate Nova Peris-Kneebone, who won gold for field hockey at Atlanta in 1996[[/note]]. To cap it off, she ran her victory lap while holding the Australian Aboriginal flag in spite of unofficial flags being banned at the Olympic Games. [[note]]While recognised as official in Australia, the Australian Aboriginal flag is neither a national flag, nor recognised by the [=IOC=].[[/note]]

* The win of Matthew Mitcham in the men's 10m platform. China had been bragging about sweeping all of the diving competitions, and came very close. Mitcham, after a less than stellar dive, was somewhere around 7th place. After an amazing dive, and a less than amazing dive by the Chinese diver, Mitcham shot up to 2nd. Another near-perfect dive--which achieved the highest score in Olympic history--and he took the gold. This also made him the first openly gay Olympic athlete to win gold, Mitcham having come out earlier in the year.

* The win of Matthew Mitcham in the men's 10m platform. China had been bragging about sweeping all of the diving competitions, and came very close. Mitcham, after a less than stellar dive, was somewhere around 7th place. After an amazing dive, and a less than amazing dive by the Chinese diver, Mitcham shot up to 2nd. Another near-perfect dive--which achieved the highest score in Olympic history--and he took the gold.

** Siobhan Haughey gaining not one but ''two'' silver medals in Swimming, in the 100m and 200m freestyle events respectively, on top of setting new Asian records for the events.

** She then followed it up with a silver in women’s big air, becoming the first New Zealand to ever win more than one medal in a single Winter Olympics.

* Speed-skater Steven Bradbury winning Australia's first ever gold medal in the Winter Olympics! And he won it not by being faster than the other competitors, but by being smarter. He knew he couldn't beat their pace, and with each skater (other than himself) being under extreme pressure to win gold [[labelnote:To wit...]]Ohno was expected to win all four of his events on top of dealing with host nation pressure, Li had won Olympic medals but was yet to take a gold medal, Turcotte only had one individual event and thus one shot at individual gold, and Ahn had been the form racer at the Olympics so far[[/labelnote]], there would definitely be a fight for gold. He'd also noted their aggressive skating styles, and knew from experience that the other skaters would likely crash into each other when they fought (this was how he made it into the final, after coming second in the semi-final when most of the skaters in front of him crashed - including Li and Turcotte). [[BatmanGambit So he hung around at the back out of the way,]] and in the final lap, what he suspected would happen, happened. The other four competitors crashed into each other while jockeying for first place during the final lap, letting Steven pass them and finish first for the gold. Little wonder that "[[PersonAsVerb doing a Bradbury]]" has entered the Australian vernacular as a term for achieving an unlikely success.

** She then followed it up with a silver in women’s big air, becoming the first New Zealand Winter Olympian to ever win more than one medal in a single ceremony.

* Speed-skater Steven Bradbury winning Australia's first ever gold medal in the Winter Olympics! And he won it not by being faster than the other competitors, but by being smarter. He knew he couldn't beat their pace, and with each skater (other than himself) being under extreme pressure to win gold [[labelnote:To wit...]]Ohno was expected to win all four of his events on top of dealing with host nation pressure, Li had won Olympic medals but was yet to take a gold medal, Turcotte only had one individual event, and Ahn had been the form racer at the Olympics so far[[/labelnote]], there would definitely be a fight for gold. He'd also noticed their aggressive skating style, and knew from experience that the other skaters would likely crash into each other when they fought (this was how he made it into the final, after coming second in the semi-final when most of the skaters in front of him crashed). So he hung around at the back out of the way, and in the final lap, what he suspected would happen, happened. The other four competitors crashed into each other, letting Steven pass them and finish first for the gold. Little wonder that "[[PersonAsVerb doing a Bradbury]]" has entered the Australian vernacular as a term for achieving an unlikely success.

** Edgar Cheung Ka-long of Hong Kong (ranking 19th in the world) beating out Daniele Garozzo of Italy (7th in the world, reigning Olympic champion) in Fencing Men's foil, winning the city's second Olympic gold to date, and the ''first Gold in a quarter of a century'' for the city since Lee Lai-shan (see Atlanta 1996). People from his hometown are understandably ecstatic by this and quickly gave him [[RedBaron nicknames]] like "Prince of Foils" (花劍王子) and "Hong Kong's God of Swords" (香港劍神) in honour of his victory.

** In the Table Tennis women's team event, Doo Hoi Kem, Lee Ho Ching and Minnie Soo Wai Yam defeating the German team 3-1, securing the city with a bronze medal to join the lineup.

** On the expected side, while the middle distances (200m and 400m) were taken by rising Australian star Ariarne Titmus, Katie Ledecky, in her third Olympics, still had it where she always had it: at the long distances, winning the first women's 1500m contested at the Olympics and then comfortably defending her title again at the 800m, becoming the first swimmer to three-peat at that distance.

* Speed-skater Steven Bradbury winning Australia's first ever gold medal in the Winter Olympics! And he won it not by being faster than the other competitors, but by being smarter. He knew he couldn't match their pace, and with each skater (other than himself) being under extreme pressure to win gold [[labelnote:To wit...]]Ohno was expected to win all four of his events on top of dealing with host nation pressure, Li had won Olympic medals but was yet to take a gold medal, Turcotte only had one individual event, and Ahn had been the form racer at the Olympics so far[[/labelnote]], there would be a fight for the medals. He'd also noticed their aggressive skating style, and knew from experience that it meant the other skaters would likely crash into each other when they fought (this was how he made it into the final, after coming second in the semi-final when most of the skaters in front of him crashed). So he hung around at the back out of the way, and in the final lap, what he suspected would happen, happened. The other four competitors crashed into each other, letting Steve pass them and finish first for the gold. Little wonder that "[[PersonAsVerb doing a Bradbury]]" has entered the Australian vernacular as a term for achieving an unlikely success.