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Thrill, excitement, joy – the Olympics bring them to us, fans in abundance. What more the mega quadrennial Games give us is the sheer pride of witnessing athletes smashing world records with consummate ease.
Just three days have been completed at the Rio Olympics 2016 and already a host of world records have been crushed and they have not just been confined to swimming only!
Here is a detailed look at the world records that have happened so far:
Kim Woojin (Archery)
World No. 1 Kim Woojin may have suffered a shock second round defeat in the second round of the men’s recurve individual event, but not before giving the sport of archery one of its most glittering moments. In the ranking round on Friday, the two-time world champion shot an incredible 700 out of a possible 720 points to secure the top seeding at the Sambodromo.
It was the very first time that any recurve archer had amassed 700 or more in history, beating his compatriot Im Dong Hyun’s tally of 699 set at the London Games in 2012. The Asian Games gold medallist, later on, went to guide Korea to a gold medal in the team competition.
Adam Peaty (100-meter breaststroke)
Adam Peaty’s feat belies his tender age of 21. The young Englishman set the pool on fire on Sunday at Rio as he smashed the 100m breaststroke world record to take the gold. His timing of 57.13 seconds saw him obliterate the 57.55 seconds set by him the previous night in heats. Peaty’s nearest rival, the 2012 champion Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa, finished second at only 58.69.
Peaty thus ended Great Britain’s 28-year wait for an Olympic swimming gold medal.
He is now the proud possessor of the 100m breaststroke gold medals at the 2015 World Championships, the 2014 and 2016 European Championships and the 2014 Commonwealth Games along with the Olympic gold.
And to think that he had an acute fear of water as a child, makes his effort all the more admirable!
Katinka Hosszu (400-meter individual medley)
Dubbed the Iron Lady, Katinka Hosszu of Hungary reversed her fourth place finish from the 2012 London Games to a shining gold medal at Rio in the 400-meter individual medley event through some unbelievably rigorous regimen. The 27-year-old made a glorious swim to end up with a world record timing of 4:26.36 that shed nearly 2 seconds off Chinese Ye’s Shiwen’s 2012 record of 4:28.43.
The indefatigable Hungarian, who is also the holder of the World Championships title in the same event, went on to add the 100m backstroke gold a day later. More records could be falling in the next few days with Hosszu set to participate in 200m backstroke, 200m butterfly as well as the 200m individual medley.
Sarah Sjostrom (100-meter butterfly)
Sweden’s prolific swimmer Sarah Sjostrom broke her own world record to claim the 100-meter butterfly gold in a series of astonishing performances from the pool so far. No stranger to creating a new world record, the 22-year-old had her first such record at the age of 15 at the 2009 World Aquatic Championships.
After the world record changed hands and went to Dana Vollmer, the irrepressible Swede snatched it back at the Kazan World Championships in 2015 which she lowered once more to make it 55.48 at Rio.
Sjostrom is an excellent freestyler as well and would be in action in the upcoming events in that discipline. Suffice to say, Sjostrom would be the primary roadblock for Katie Ledecky as the American pursues glory in freestyle.
Katie Ledecky (Women’s 400-meter freestyle)
Katie Ledecky proved why the buzz is around her at the Rio Olympics. The 19-year-old American first created an Olympic record in the heats of the 400m freestyle where she raced to 3:58.71 to grab the top spot. In the final, Ledecky outdid herself with another staggering display.
This time, she swam to the gold in 3:56:46 to set a new world record timing that was almost 5 seconds ahead of the second-placed Jazmin Carlin, who clocked 4:01:23. This is her second medal of the Rio Games after she played a crucial role in guiding the 4x100m freestyle team to a silver medal.
Not surprisingly, she was the youngest person to feature on the Time 100 list of Time Magazine in 2016. The teenage prodigy is on a mission. Ledecky, who already scooped up the 800m freestyle gold in London at the age of 15, still has two more individual freestyle events at Rio.
Be prepared to be dazzled by the freestyle queen, who is already a nine-time world champion!
