Tokyo 202(ONE) Olympics Preview
A look at the women who could shatter records at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics
Believe it or not, the world is exactly three months away from the Opening Ceremonies of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
This summer’s Olympic Games will serve as a moment of global unity following a year scarred by the coronavirus pandemic. Over 11,000 athletes across 41 different sports are expected to compete in Tokyo, representing over 200 countries.
While there is still quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding the Games’ logistics, particularly in regards to COVID-19, vaccine protocols and fan attendance, there are plenty of female athletes on the verge of making history this summer. Here are a few major storylines for the women of Team USA.
Record Breakers, History Makers
Five American women are poised break big records in Tokyo: Allyson Felix (track and field), Katie Ledecky (swimming), Simone Biles (gymnastics), Simone Manuel (swimming) and Sue Bird (basketball).
I’ll get to Felix and Biles in a second; they deserve their own sections, frankly. Ledecky, Manuel and Bird are bound to hit a few milestones of their own this summer.
Manuel is a four-time Olympic medalist. Six more would bring her career high to 10 medals, a feat only three American women have accomplished. The Stanford alumni specializes in the sprint freestyle, with 100-meter freestyle being her best event. She looks to become the first American woman to repeat as the 100-meter freestyle champion.
Ledecky, also a former Cardinal, focuses on longer distances. She plans to race the 200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter and newly added 1500-meter freestyle events this summer. If these Games go anything like her previous Olympic performances, Ledecky could add to her arsenal of five gold medals. She looks to tie or break Jenny Thompson’s record of eight in Tokyo.
Although ageless wonder Sue Bird is tied with LeBron James for most national basketball titles (4), she does edge him in Olympic golds. Bird will make her fifth Olympic Games this summer, and could become the first basketball player––of any gender––to win five gold medals. She could also become the oldest U.S. Olympic basketball player at age 40.
Athletes and Activists
Allyson Felix and Simone Biles are two athletes well-renowned for their Olympic prowess in track and field and gymnastics. Yet their names carry much more weight than their stacks of gold medals. Today they signify social activism in the national spotlight.
Felix is already the most decorated American woman in Olympic track and field history with nine medals (six of them gold). In Tokyo she could tie or break the record for most medals won by an American track and field athlete (10), which legend Carl Lewis currently holds.
Though this year’s Games could mark an important milestone in her career, it’s monumental in more ways for the track star. It will be Felix’s first Olympics as a mom, and her first in the spotlight as an activist.
Felix had been sponsored by Nike since 2010, and when her contract ended in 2017, she had every intention to renew it. Nike did not want to match her previous contract, fearing she would not perform as well post-pregnancy. Felix chose to abandon Nike’s offer and become an advocate for improving maternity policies in athletics. With her baby daughter Camryn at the center of her world, she vowed to be her role model on and off the track.
“I think previously it just wasn’t comfortable for me to come out and really have big opinions on various things,” Felix said in an interview with her alma mater, University of Southern California. “By having [Camryn] and especially being the mother of a daughter, it really hits home. What’s not right needs to be spoken on, and even if change doesn’t come much further down the line, I just want to do everything I can to be a part of it.”
Felix’s new sponsorship with Athleta includes “full protection during maternity.”
Another athlete who uses her platform for activism is Simone Biles. She’s arguably the best gymnast of all time, and has potential to break the women’s record for the most career gold medals in any sport (along with Felix). Prior to Tokyo, no American woman in any sport has won five gold medals at a single Games… Biles could become the first.
And along with her goals for gold comes her guts to spark change.
Three years ago, Biles came forward as a victim of sexual abuse under Larry Nassar, the sports doctor at USA Gymnastics (USAG). Since then, she has played a vital role in the lawsuit against Nassar, as well as uncovering the truths about how the scandal was covered up for so many years. When the Games were postponed in 2020, it was suspected that Biles would hang up the leotard for good. Yet she chose to hang on for one year longer––this time with a louder voice.
“I had to come back to the sport to be a voice, to have change happen,” Biles said on the TODAY show. “If there weren’t a remaining survivor in the sport, [USAG] would’ve just brushed it to the side. But since I’m still here, and have quite a social media presence, [USAG] have to do something. So I feel like coming back, gymnastics just wasn’t the only purpose I was supposed to do.”
Biles recently announced that she too will be terminating her sponsorship with Nike to join Athleta, where she hopes to use her platform in even more ways for change within the athletic community.