A medal means a state holiday there, while we have a ‘money box’
Miracles made by Olympians’ hands in a review of Realnoe Vremya
No one goes to Olympic Games just for fun. The capital of every Olympiad becomes a place where dreams of thousands of people — athletes and their relatives, coaches and fans — come true or not. Athletes will remember all their life every mistake they made. Every athlete who will make fewer mistakes than others will become an idol for thousands of people. Realnoe Vremya tells about the greatest dreams of recent days of the Olympiad that came true.
Benefits of dreaming!
A photo that appeared on the Internet on 13 August morning went viral worldwide. Michael Phelps could not win a gold in the 100 m butterfly. It has been his third defeat in the individual race since 2004. Young Singaporean Joseph Schooling who take a photo with his great idol 8 years ago in Beijing (on poster) became the winner. By the way, the Russian national team also has a similar photo. As a child, Dmitry Volkov took a photo with the great in all senses of the word Sergey Tetyukhin 10 years ago. Now they are playing in one team at the Games. Even if they are not rivals, this photo is not worse at encouraging to believe in dreams.
Two days off for Olympic score
Sometimes even dreams of entire countries come true. We all saw how happy and proud of its football team small Island has been this summer. Many people wished good luck to the Fiji rugby sevens team before the beginning of the Olympic tournament. And it did it! The first gold in the history of the republic located on an island whose population is much less than, for example, in Kazan was received in the country as a real festivity. Joy for the victory of the team was so great that there were announced two days off, and the day of the Olympic final was declared a state holiday.
Not the best game of top tennis players in Rio gave an opportunity to another miracle and organised a celebration in another country. Monica Puig became the first Olympic champion in the history of Puerto Rico. Curiously, she told about her intention to win the Olympics at the end of the last season. Continuity, focus, hard work and a bit of luck, and now the beauty Puig has been a national hero.
Velikaya's dream
Seven-time world champion Sofia Velikaya finally has been an Olympic champion! Yana Egoryan, Ekaterina Dyachenko, Yulia Gavrilova won a victory together with her. The Russian sabre team was an indubitable favourite of the tournament. And having lived up to the expectations, the girls competed during all bouts of the day without chances to lose. After a silver in the individual competition, Velikaya said she will have to fight till Tokyo, the most important thing is to win a gold. This is why journalists decided Sofia's final goal in the team competition was achieved, so they told about her retirement. The 31-year-old athlete disproved these words: 'Look, how can I leave all this? If only somebody will make me do it'.
Four golds out of nine belong to fencers. Such success is achieved not only by means of talented athletes. As usual, many people who do their job well, from coaches to functionaries, are behind such 'systematic' wins. It should be noted the International Fencing Federation president and one of the richest people of Russia Alisher Usmanov develops this sport in Russia and worldwide. His wife Irina Viner-Usmanova has been chairing the Russian rhythmic gymnastics for many years. Achievements in this sport are well known.
Players won't give up
Russia's Ivanov and Sozonov had a great match with badminton leaders. The men have already reached the semi-final and have all chances to occupy the podium. In the women's singles, Natalia Perminova also has a win under her belt in a group match.
Volleyball players gifted their fans new minutes of heart-stopping moments and won a victory against key rivals from Poland in five sets.
Our women's water polo team did not make its fans happy: they lost the next group match. The next quarterfinal match was going to be against girls from Spain. The team captain guaranteed a good mood for the game in an interview with Championat: 'The team worked much and hard for this Olympiad. I promise we won't give up easily'.
Boxer Evgeny Tischenko reached the final in 91+ class. He was going to fight against Kazakhstan's Vasily Levit on 15 August.
