The United States reigned supreme once again in the belated 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Summer Olympics were supposed to take place on March 24, 2020, but was made impossible by the COVID-19 pandemic. We can only imagine the sorrow all Olympic Athletes were feeling all over the world. 2021 has turned out to be a much better year than 2020 and this allowed the Tokyo Olympics to commence!  

Tokyo welcomed over 205 teams from all over the world to compete in the summer Olympics of 2021. This included over 11,000 athletes to compete in hundreds of events. There was still plenty of social distancing and masks being worn, but it really made things seem normal for everyone, not just the athletes. The pressure was high considering the athletes had an extra year to train and prepare. However, you could see their joy from the hundreds of TikToks that were made by the athletes while in Tokyo.  

There were eight countries that tied for last place and those countries are as follows: Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Grenada, Kuwait, Republic of Moldova, and Syrian Arab Republic. Each of these teams had one bronze medal. The top five countries were the United States of America, People’s Republic of China, ROC (Russian Olympic Committee), Great Britain, and Japan. The United States of America received first place overall with 39 golds, 41 silvers, and 33 bronze, with a total of 113 medals. The People’s Republic of China came in second and received 38 golds, 32 silvers, and 18 bronze, making their total 88 medals. The ROC, or the Russians, had 20 golds, 28 silvers, and 23 bronze, making their total 71. Great Britain came in fourth with an overall total of 65 medals, 22 being gold, 21 being silver, and 22 being bronze. In fifth place is Japan with a total of 58 medals: 27 gold, 14 silver, and 17 bronze.  

The 2021 Olympics will forever be remembered. It was one of the first times that Olympians were allowed to show who they really are through the media, whether that be social or otherwise. We really got to see how being a top athlete can mess with your mental and physical health. This year’s Olympics showed that these athletes are still just as much human as the rest of us. They taught us that even in hard times, we just need to keep pushing, but to not push ourselves over the edge. 

If you would like to know more about the individual and country rankings from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, please visit https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/all-sports/medal-standings.htm.