Rio Update – 800m History, 400m Dive, Pole Vault, And Medals By Fingertips

These Olympic games are increasingly becoming pretty fantastic thanks to the incredible athletes from all over the world. It’s not unusual for pre-Olympic press to be all about problems but once the Games begin, the incredible talent and heart on display overwhelms all the negatives. And it has happened again here in Rio, despite the shocking robbery of American swimmers earlier this week.

Last night, Kenyan David Rudisha became the first man in over 50 years to defend his Olympic gold medal in the 800m. Rudisha held his own in a blistering first quarter of the race and then pulled away from the field around the final corner and held on in the stretch to complete his Olympic double. That was followed by an incredible ending to the women’s 400m where Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas literally dove through the finish line to just nip the legendary American Allison Felyx for the gold. The evening in track was completed when Thiago Braz Da Silva upset the reigning Olympic champion, Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie, with an Olympic record leap in the pole vault. Needless to say, the home crowd went crazy when Lavillenie missed his final jump, giving Da Silva the gold.

Earlier today, the men’s 10K swim ended with a mad dash to the finish that left even the swimmers unsure of who had come in the medal positions. Incredibly, after nearly 2 hours of swimming, the top ten finishers all finished within 5 seconds of each other and places 3 through ten all finished within one second of each other. As it turned out, Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands just touched out Spyridon Gionniotis of Greece for the gold as they both had times of 1:52:59. Frenchman Marc-Antoine Olivier then barely touched out Zu Lijun of China for the bronze as they also both had times of 1:53:02. Imagine the heartbreak of swimming for 2 hours and missing out on a medal by a fingertip. But that is what makes the Olympics what it is.