Despite the restrictions policy and one year delay, Tokyo Olympic 2020 has successfully been held and it’s now finally come to a close. The event that was organized from 23rd July to 8th August 2021 left us full of emotion and inspiration. Salute to all the athletes who participate in the global arena of sportsmanship and athletic excellence. Thanks to the organizer who has managed the event perfectly well and ensured safety for all. The stadiums were almost always empty without spectators, but we believe the games had made us scream excitedly out loud at our home during the quarantine (or PPKM in Indonesia). So, thank you Tokyo Olympic 2020!
Although the competition was over, celebrating it for one more time wouldn’t be hurt. We have prepared six outstanding moments at the Tokyo Olympics, including new records, accomplishment, and the distinctive ceremony. Let’s have a look, folks!
#1 Glorious achievement: registered as unseeded athletes, but come out graciously as a medalist!
The Olympics taught us that even the athletes listed in the very last track remain have a chance to be a winner. We all witnessed the resiliency of world champions who can manage the pressures before standed up as a victory. The combination of preparation, skills, and determination is expressed in the games and inspires us with hope. As long as we put the courage in ourselves, we will have the chance to be a champion. We are thrilled to list down some dark house and unseeded athletes who crafted their name as medalist, congratulations!
First, we have Flora Duffy, a 33 years old Triathlon Athlete from Bermuda who won the first ever Gold Medal for her country. She finished the game in 1 hours 55 minutes and 36 seconds - more than one minute ahead of the world champion triathlete Georgia Taylor-Brown from Great Britain and Katie Zaferes from USA. Bermuda became the smallest country to win the Gold Medal with this victory!
After beating the Chinese athlete Liao Qiuyun in the Women Weight Lifter 55 kg class, Hidilyn Diaz won the first ever gold medal in Olympic history for the Philippines. The 30 years old lifter was superior to his opponent by lifting 127 kg weight.
Another inspiring victory came from the Tunisian young swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui. He surprised the swimming world with his stunning performance in the men’s 400 freestyle final who was 0.16 second faster than Australian swimmer Jack McLaoughlin. As the fifth Tunisian to win a medal at the Olympics, he was registered as the slowest qualifier for the final race. His determination has definitely led him to become a considerable swimmer!
While some people believe that age is a limitation, Momiji Nishiya grabbed the gold medal in the Women’s Street Skateboarding at the age of 13. She was rewarded with big applause as the youngest medalist! Well, Congrats, sweetheart! It’s never too young to be a champion.
A professional mathematician Anna Kiesenhofer walked to the podium as the first Austrian gold medalist in Women’s cycling road race in 125 years! She cycled 1 km ahead of 2019 world champion Annemiek Van Vleuten from the Netherlands. When she asked about the journey to this astonishing accomplishment, she said that she dared to be different. Unlike many other cyclists, she used the mathematician approach as a problem solver to get the chance to win. She called herself as the mastermind on the whole preparation, including the nutrition plan, training, and race strategy. That’s SUPERB, man!
Last but not least, the gold medalists from Indonesia Greysia Polii & Apriyani Rahayu in Women’s Double Badminton also listed as an unseeded team. Greysia and Apriyani shaken the country with the full excitement as this will be marked as the first ever gold medal in the Women’s Double Badminton. With the Gold Medal in hands, Indonesia became the second country in the world to win a gold medal in all badminton categories in Olympic history.
Looking back to the Greysia career’s journey, it doesn't always end with glory. She was even disqualified in the London Olympic 2012 and had considered retiring several times. Glad she didn’t quit. As all of her efforts were paid off, she now can call herself proudly as one of the best world champion badminton athletes. Same struggles goes to Apriyani Rahayu who has now become the youngest badminton player to win a gold medal in the Olympics. She said that she only has an option to keep moving forward. Hence, she gave all of herself in every match! Congrats both!
#2 The Present for Indonesia Independence Day: Win Most Medal in ASEAN
It was a roller coaster feeling to watch the Indonesian Athletes competing in Tokyo Olympic 2020. Finally, we have the assurance that Indonesia's representative athletes have performed incredibly in the Olympics. Indonesia was ranked top amongst the other ASEAN countries (rank 37 globally) with 1 Gold Medal, 1 Silver, and 5 Bronze! Thank you, thank you, thank you, this will be the best independence day present ever!!
Windy Cantika Aisah, a 19 years old lifter from Kabupaten Bandung won a bronze medal in the Women’s 49 kg weightlifting. Her best score was clean & jerk on her 110 kg at her 3rd attempt. The Asean Games gold medalist started her career as an athlete under the influence of her mother, Siti Aisah who was also an athlete.
Still in the weight-lifting sector, we got Eko Yuli Irawan who was announced as Silver medalist. Eko has made a record with 4 medals at the 4 Olympics in a row (Bronze Medal at the Beijing Olympic 2008, Bronze Medal at the London Olympic 2012, Silver Medal at the Rio Olympic 2016, and Silver Medal at the Tokyo Olympic 2020). Many people predicted that he would never win any medal after losing to the Vietnamese athlete at the Sea Games 2017. He was also experiencing a decline in performance throughout the year. However, in this Olympics, he showed that no one can limit our power when we have strong will!
The 20 years old Rahmat Erwin Abdullah won a bronze medal in Men’s Weigh-Lifting class 73 kg. This medalist is surprising as Rahmat was listed in Group B - the grup category for non-favorite players who traditionally never won any medal. He gained an interest to be a weight-lifter since he was a kid as both of his parents are an Indonesian weight-lifters. His dad, Erwin Abdullah, competed in Athens Olympics 2004 but cannot finish the game due to his back Injury. After 12 years of hard work, Rahmat won a Bronze Medal for men’s weight-lifting class 73 kg with total weight of 342 kg (snatch 152 kg and clean & jerk 190 kg). He then presents the medal to his coach, who is his very own father.
Anthony Sinisuka Ginting is dubbed as the Indonesian fastest badminton player. He performed admirably in many national and international tournaments, such as the Youth Olympic Games, Korean Open, etc. After an intense battle with Kevin Gordon (21-11 and 21-13), Anthony Sinisuka Ginting brought the bronze medal home at the Olympic 2020! Anthony was recorded history as the first ever player to medal in Youth Olympic Games and Olympic Games.
The endless celebration went to Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu for the first gold medal in Women Double Badminton. After her partner, Nitya Maheswari had officially announced her retirement, Greysia Polii was about to end her journey in the badminton field. However, Eng Hian and her family persuaded her to keep on playing badminton when she still had the chance. In 2017, she was paired with Apriyani Rahayu. It turned out that Apriyani matched her energy really well. They both won the Thailand Open and continue improving their performance quality. With the total score of 21-19 and 21-15 Grey-Ap beat the number 3 world rank for Chinese Women’s Double, Qing Chen dan Yi Fan Jia in this Olympics.
Congratulations, winners! One thing for sure that we want to tell all the Indonesian athletes: whether you get back with a medal or not, you remain the best! Please keep believing in yourself and come back stronger! uwu
#3 Popular Japanese Anime Songs Sound Loud in the Olympic Games Arena!
As Japan is famous with anime, manga, and video games, the organizer decided to sound off the anime song in the opening of the Olympic games. As soon as the songs were played in the Olympic arena, it felt like they just dropped a bomb of surprise for all the virtual spectators around the world. It drove endless conversations in social media. What makes the people even more hooked is that the organizer strategically choose the anime song that is suitable with the game, such as:
Kimi ga Suki da to Sakebitaii, soundtrack of SlamDunk were played on the Women’s Basketball game
Guren no Yumiya from Attack on Titans played on the archery game (BTW Guren no Yumiya means Crimson bow and Arrow XD)
Imagination from Haikyuu!! played at the volleyball match between Japan and Venezuela Team hahahaha!
What a creative touch!!
#4 Hope, Diversity, and Gender Equality: A Value embraced in Olympic 2020
Tokyo Olympics 2020 embraced us with empowering messages on hope, diversity, gender and racial equality. One of symbolic moments to express this value is when they choose Naomi Osaka, Japan Professional Tennis Player as the final torchbearer at the Opening Ceremony 2020. Naomi Osaka was representative of a modern diverse Japan and a voice of supporting racial and gender equality.
Japan’s Tennis Player Naomi Osaka is the Grand Slam Champion tennis player for four times and was named as the number one tennis player by Women's Tennis Association (first ever asian tennis who holds the top ranking in tennis singles). Her diverse family background as half japanese and half Haiti represented this strong value.
#5 Hands On for The Most Sustainable Olympics of All Time!
By putting the slogan “Be Better, Together - For The Planet and The People” at the front, Tokyo Olympic 2020 showed its commitment to contribute for a better world and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals by utilizing renewable energy technology and sustainable materials during the events, such as:
Cardboard Bed for The Athlete
The bed was produced by the Airwave company with the concept of reusable product. So, they create an eco-friendly bed that can be reused later. All of these cardboard bed frames will be recycled into paper products after the games ended.
Fun Facts: Takashi Kitajima, the general manager of Athletes Village, said the beds were very strong; they could stand up to 200 kilograms and were stronger than wooden beds!
*Well, maybe somebody bother to teach us how to create the bed, Budi would love to have one haha
A Recycled Medal from Electronic Waste
Tokyo Olympic 2020 became the first Olympics that used ‘recycled’ for the medals, donated by the japanese citizens. The donation was first announced back in 2017 under the project title Tokyo 2020 Medal Project: Towards an Initiative Future for All. Check the video HERE!
Fun Facts: The Medal was designed by top designer artists in the country through the Tokyo Olympics 2020 Medal Design competition. There are more than 400 professional designers who have submitted their designs!
3D Recycle Podium
There were at least 98 of the 3D-printed Tokyo Olympic podiums that were made by 1.5 millions of household waste and plastic packaging that was collected from schools, stores, and offices all over Japan. Designed by Asao Tokolo, the 3D printed podiums represent Japanese traditions and the environmental friendly values of the Olympic Games. Tokolo really wanted to embody the evolution of Japan while also recalling the country’s history. The structures of the podium were made out of recycled plastic. It symbolizes this year's Olympic Games commitment to save the environment.
Japan New Cooling System For Tokyo Olympics 2020
Did you guys know that Tokyo is one of the hottest Olympic places on record? In the Men’s 100m final, the venue temperature was 40°C. To handle this situation, Japan has installed temporary misting towers capable of cooling the air up to 20°C per second. What a great initiative!
The First Humanoid Robot by Toyota
In collaboration with Toyota, the athletes would have the chance to be served by very kind humanoid robots, powered by renewable technology. One of the Robots is called e-palette who applied Lidar Technology (Light Detection and Ranging) in his body to enable himself to sense the surroundings through a laser beam. Think that e-palette is the most sophisticated car with an awesome job to take the athletes to go around the Athlete Village. How lovely!
#6 Creative Marketing Strategy with Google Doodle Games & SK-II
As a part of the Olympics festivities, we can play interactive mini games for free presented by Google Doodle and Tokyo's STUDIO 4°C. The games include seven mini games that contain 5 olympic sports, namely table tennis, rugby, running, swimming, and climbing, equipped with some fun quests.
How to play this? The game will invite you to join a calico cat athlete named Lucky who will explore Doodle Champion Island and complete the seven sport mini-game, legendary opponent, and side-quest. The goal of this game is to collect seven sacred scrolls and beat the ‘champions’.
As the animation studio who is responsible for developing the Doodle Island Game, STUDIO 4°C combined the background stories, Japanese folktales, and uniqueness of the characters that can represent the Japanese culture. The Doodle Island Games was designed to be able to convey the mesmerizing view landscape in Japanese, including beaches, forests, and mountains. Haven’t had the chance to play the game? You still try it now, go click the link: GOOGLE DOODLE OLYMPICS GAMES!
Not stopping here, the Olympics also partnered with SK-II as the official skincare for Tokyo Olympics 2020. They launched beauty is #NOCOMPETITION campaign to encourage women in the sports arena to be more confident in themselves and inspire all women out there that EVERY WOMEN deserves to set their own dream.
Continuing the campaign, they also produced “VS” animation series which contained six episodes with six different social pressures that most women normally faced. This movie was featuring six powerful female olympics athletes:
Simone Biles, the world’s most decorated gymnast - TROLLS
Liu Xiang, world-record swimmer - OBSESSION
Ishikawa Kasumi, table tennis player and two-time Olympic medalist - PRESSURE
Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo, badminton duo - MACHINES
Mahina Maeda, surfer Olympic gold medalists - RULES
Hinotori Nippon, Japan Volleyball Team - LIMITATIONS
All of these animation films were packed with different genres we believe will blow your mind! All of the episodes are on SK-II’s Youtube Channel! If you’re interested in watching the animated movie, WATCH IT HEREEEE! <3
Even though Tokyo Olympic 2020 has come to an end, hopefully the spirit and all the inspirations will keep us motivated, especially in the most sensitive time like nowadays.
Huge shoutout to all the world class athletes, the Olympic Host Japan and all the organizer committee! You guys rock! \m/
Thank you for all of your hard work and inspiration! You guys definitely bring the fresh air in this unprecedented time! Ga Jelas are very proud of each and one of you! <3
Executive Content Writer:
Co-writer & Editor:
Sesa Wulandari / Kolaku.co
Creative Team:
Jasmine Surkatty, Art Director
Kharen Chandra, Illustrator
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