While Donald Trump waits for the pole vaulting event in order to gauge how high he needs to build the border wall, North Korea’s Supreme Leader is impatiently awaiting his country’s first gold medal.
Kim Jong Un demanded his athletes bring home at least five gold medals. So far, the isolated nation has won two silvers and two bronze medals. North Korean weightlifter Om Yun-col failed to win a gold medal on Monday, only to be met by high-ranking North Korean official Choe Ryong-hae immediately after. The South Korean delegates in Rio are concerned that poorly performing North Koreans will be sent to labor camps for not winning gold. Read more about that here.
But don’t tell the citizens of North Korea that. The (unconfirmed) state-run media is reporting that the nation has won 109 total medals. Second place is China with eight. The United States doesn’t crack the top 10.
Back down on planet Earth, history was made by yet another U.S. swimmer. Simone Manuel not only won gold while setting an Olympic record in the 100-meter freestyle. She also became the first African-American woman to win gold in a swimming event for the United States. To make it even more amazing, her time of 57.20 tied Canadian Penny Oleksiak, who shared the top of the podium with Manuel as co-champion.
Brazil’s City of God has turned to the City of Gold, thanks to the newest judo champion and resident of Rio’s most notorious favela. Rafaela Silva made her nation and her neighborhood proud by winning a gold medal in judo. Silva faced much criticism before the games, receiving threats due to her race and her background, but Silva let her fighting do the talking and shocked her critics with victory.
Silva took her moment in the spotlight to announce to the media for the first time that she is gay, becoming the 48th openly gay athlete in the Rio Olympics.
Michael Phelps’s obsession with finding more gold should take him to El Dorado, but then again, he might not find as much gold there as he's found at the Olympics. Phelps secured his fourth gold medal of 2016 and the 22nd of his career last night after he beat fellow American Ryan Lochte (as well as everyone else) in the 200-meter medley race. It’s getting a little ridiculous, but Phelps has the opportunity for one more gold; the 100-meter butterfly finals will be shown on television at 9:12 p.m. tonight — the last swimming event of the games.
It’s been 112 years since golf was an Olympic event, but it made its triumphant return yesterday when Brit golfer, Justin Rose got a hole-in-one on the fourth hole of the opening round. It’s the Olympics' first-ever hole-in-one, but I guess anything that happens in golf during the tournament will be the first-ever. Rose Is tied for fourth while Australia’s Marcus Fraser is leading, heading into the second round.
Sports isn't for everyone, but you know what is for everyone? Star Wars. The new Star Wars Rogue One trailer debuted last night during the Olympics. If you missed that, well, then you probably just don't watch the Olympics. And hate America.
With the completion of swimming, track and field kicks off today on television. Catch the action starting at 10 a.m. Or don’t. Whatever. U.S. women’s soccer team faces Sweden’s soccer team in the quarterfinals on NBCSN at noon today and the men’s basketball team faces Serbia this evening at 6 on NBCSN.
This article appears in Aug 11-18, 2016.