* The names are now etched in Olympic history: Bolt, Biles, Phelps, Ladecky. Best of the best. Incredible, iconic athletic achievements.
And yet, there’s no room on the modern Mt. Olympus for Ashton Eaton. Who? Precisely.
Eaton, by virtue of winning the Olympic decathlon, is universally acknowledged as “the best all around athlete in the world.” The decathlon–from sprinting and pole vaulting to javelin tossing and 1,500-meter running–is that challenging, that lung-busting, that special. And that uniconic.
And Eaton, 28, also won the decathlon in 2012 in London. And he holds the Olympic record at 8,893 points. Well, maybe if he threepeats in Tokyo, he’ll get more recognition–and a Wheaties box.
* Imagine, that outrageously talented, USA women’s basketball team could still have won the gold medal had it only played University of Connecticut grads.
* Olympic sprint gold medalist Usain Bolt of Jamaica is amazing. No need to go into the details for the best who has ever competed. But when your abilities and achievements–and those nine career gold medals–speak for themselves, why add redundant self-compliments? “I am the greatest” is manifestly true–and truly unnecessary.
* Tampa resident Tianna Bartoletta won two gold medals at the Rio Olympics–the long jump and lead-off leg of the women’s 400-meter relay. St. Pete’s Trayvon Bromell briefly had claim to a bronze for his anchor leg of the men’s 400-meter relay, but lost it when the U.S. team was ultimately disqualified for a bad baton pass between the first two runners.
* Just 77 weeks until the next (Winter) Olympics in South Korea.