Due to COVID-19, the 2020 Olympics were postponed, but the athlete’s determination was not. In fact, the postponement of the Olympics made it possible for athletes’ to train and practice more. Each Olympic athlete had the chance to break world, olympic, and personal records, and many achieved that. 

Regarding those records, there are at least two athletes that broke them in the  swimming event. To start off, Caelab Dressel, Team United States of America (USA) swim member,broke two records in the men’s 4×100 meter relay race and the men’s 100-meter butterfly race. According to nbcolympics.com, in the butterfly race, he came in first with a 49.45 second time. Another swimming record that was broken was the women’s 200-meter breaststroke with 2:18.95 minutes by Tatjana Schoenmaker, a Team South Africa (USA) member. One of the more prestigious sports in the Olympics, track and field, holds an infamous record by Sydney McLaughlin, a Team USA track and field member. Although she set the standard high, in the 2020 Olympics she broke her own world record in the women’s 400 meter hurdles with a total time of 51.46 seconds. Also from nbcolympics.com, Yulimar Rojas, a Team Venezuela track and field participant, won the first gold medal for her country and broke the 26 year old triple jump record with 15.67 meters. Adding on to the running successes, Team Norway’s Karsten Warholm won gold and broke the world record for the men’s 400 meter hurdles in 45.94 seconds. 

For Team Georgia, Lasha Talakhazde broke three records in men’s weightlifting. His lifts consisted of 223 kilograms for snatch, 265 kilograms for clean and jerk, and a total of 488 kilograms as an overall world record. 

If you are a basketball fan, these results for shooting some hoops can be shocking. Team USA’s Kevin Durant surpassed Carmelo Anthony’s 336 points during USA’s preliminary contest against the Czech Republic. In climbing, Aleksandra Miroslaw from Team Poland broke the women’s speed climbing record with 6.84 seconds. 

Moving onto the team event portion, , the men’s Italian cycling group broke the record with 3:42.032. While in the women’s division, the Germany cycling team broke the record in the qualifying round with a time of 4:04.242. Regarding swimming, the Australian swimming team also broke a record for the women’s 4×100 meter relay with a total of 3:29.69 minutes. 

For the countries, an interesting fact is that throughout eight different sports there were 31 athletes that have either gone to University of Florida (UF) or graduated from UF. The UF athletes have made this year’s Olympics one of the most participated Olympic games in their athletic history. 

With all the records that were broken in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, there is no doubt that even more will be broken next year at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.