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Five: Kate Douglass winning the Gold medal in the 200 meter breaststroke – her first as an Olympian. She smiled and her smile has a way of making us smile. Such a humble and classy young lady, so cool under pressure.
She makes us all proud to be citizens of the same country, her country, the United States, where she has risen to the pinnacle of her sport. Forever she is Miss American as far as I’m concerned.
Four: Torri Huske winning the 100 meter butterfly then invited her teammate who finished second, Gretchen Walsh, to join her on the Gold Medal stand of the podium while the Star Spangled Banner played. The epitome of sportsmanship this was. Rather than wanting the spotlight to shine only on her, Huske thought of someone else in a moment when she could have basked alone in her glory.
Athletes don’t always think of others in these precious moments of fleeting fame. Huske did. For that we’ll always remember her. It was a gesture that gave us insight to the kind of human being she is. Winning Gold in the butterfly dazzled us. Sharing the moment with her teammate was more impressive and forever more noteworthy.
Three: Nic Fink, at age 31, winning his first Olympic medal, the silver in the 100 meter breaststroke, stands out for his huge time commitment to swimming before winning the coveted medal. It’s really stunning when you think about it.
Most swimmers who make the Olympic team and don’t win a medal stop around the ages of 22 or 25 or 27. They move on. Nic didn’t. He took a rarified journey that took much longer than most Olympic swimmers are willing to persist and endure the all-out life dedication to becoming an elite swimmer. He showed patience and grit and did not give up until he reached the medal stand.
Making this an even more compelling story is he swam the 100 breaststroke leg of the 4 by 100 mixed relay that won Gold. So he got Silver and Gold – what a way to cap a career. Nic Fink, you are an American treasure forever.
Two: Ariarne Titmus beat Katie Ledecky in the 400 freestyle; Ledecky won Bronze. It was tough to watch Ledecky fall behind because it so rarely happens. We think of her as invincible but she doesn’t win every single race and that was moving and a little sad. We also thought maybe it was the first sign that she may be past her prime as the dominant swimmer of her generation.
One: Ledecky’s Gold Medal swims in the 1500 and eight hundred meter freestyles. I was at a beach bar mesmerized as she swam lap after lap after lap after lap, wondering what she was thinking and how much pain she was feeling. Out ahead she was, again, where she almost always seems to be as if swimming a race no others could ever understand.
Way out front, arms moving, Katie being Katie, making us wonder what’s inside the heart of this woman, what drives her, how does she swim so fast for so long, how do the great ones become great and continue to be?
By a lot she took the Gold. Whatever doubts we may have had about her superhuman-ness after Titmus won against her in the 400 freestyle were erased. She still had it. She was still the greatest.
But she wasn’t done. It was a questionable situation whether she could hold off Titmus in the eight hundred meter freestyle. Shorter than the 1,500 and not too much further than the 400, it felt dicey.
And it was.
Throughout the race Katie led but Titmus stayed close enough that you could envision the Australian kicking the last two laps and out-touching Katie. Had that happened, we would have to consider today that Titmus had usurped Katie as the best all-around female swimmer, at least at these games.
Katie may have been aware of this potential scenario when she dove in to start the eight hundred. Maybe not, but it ultimately didn’t become a topic for debate because late in the race she accelerated and Titmus couldn’t keep up.
Gold.
Katie Ledecky.
We’re now left wondering if she’ll keep swimming all the way to the Los Angeles Olympics in four years and, if she does, whether she will be this dominant again.
What we aren’t left wondering is this: she is the greatest female swimmer and, just as importantly, the classiest and most humble superstar athlete of all time.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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