#RIO2016: not only sports

The Olympics keeps attracting the attention of millions of sports fans around the world. Front pages of print media and prime time news programs of well-known channels all over the world feature daily reports from Rio. First of all, the journalists bring news of new records, achievements and genuine discoveries made at this year’s competition, like Ukrainian Elina Svitolina’s sensational victory over the world’s No. 1 women’s singles tennis player American Serena Williams in the third round of the 2016 Olympics’ tennis competition. Let us recall that Svitolina defeated Williams in two sets 6:4, 6:3 and reached the quarter-finals of Rio 2016.

 However, not only sports events attract the media’s attention. On August 10, the top theme was unexpected ruling of a Brazilian court that allowed fans to bring political posters to Olympic events. Thus, the police may no longer suppress peaceful demonstrations and expel protesters from the stadiums. This decision was immediately condemned by the IOC, which stated once again that sport was apolitical. Still, fans may now freely and openly express their political views in the stadiums and streets of Rio.

 The global media have been paying a lot of attention to the subject of athletes’ injuries at the Olympics. Prominent tabloids go as far as to run headlines like “Rio Has Become a Trauma Center.” Indeed, experts have called the bad conditions in the stadiums and athletic fields a disappointing feature of the competition’s early days, leading to a large number of injuries suffered by athletes. For instance, Frenchman Samir Ait Said suffered a terrible injury in the qualifying competition for the vault event. Ait broke his left leg in a botched landing. Another accident occurred with the Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten, who was taken to hospital after a crash on the Vista Chinesa descent during a group road race. The fall occurred with about 12 kilometers left to the finish, when van Vleuten was leading the race with a margin of over 30 seconds over her nearest pursuer Mara Abbott, but could not cope with the descent made slippery by rain. The athlete suffered a heavy concussion and had three vertebrae fractured. Another cyclist, Vincenzo Nibali of Italy, fell during the men’s road race, fracturing both collarbones. Colombian Sergio Henao fell at the same location, breaking the pelvis. Rio’s propensity for injuries has not spared Ukrainian athletes either. Serious wrist injury of our gymnast Maksym Semiankiv prevented him from competing in an event. As a result, the Ukrainian team, which included Oleh Verniaiev, Vladyslav Hryko, Maksym Semiankiv, Andrii Sienichkin, and Ihor Radivilov, finished the race at the last, eighth place, despite easily qualifying for the finals.

 The media have featured a lively discussion of quite funny incidents that have happened at the Olympics as well. One day, they detected a double of the famous actor Leonardo DiCaprio with a bow in hand (American archer Brady Ellison does strongly resemble the Oscar-winning celebrity), while another day saw them looking for the shooter who unintentionally fired at the press center, located near the equestrian sports venue. However, despite the scandals and curiosities abounding at the Games, the main spectacle is being played out in sports venues where an interesting trend has been observed: little-known athletes dethrone titled rivals on a daily basis.