Pictured above: USF’s former student athlete Evelyn Viens (top right), alongside her team, won Canada’s first gold medal in women’s soccer.
Courtesy of Getty Images.
By Sofía García Vargas
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics was one to remember.
Despite its turbulent start, the Olympic games delivered high-level performances and set new all-time records from athletes around the world.
It was the first-ever gender-balanced games. Almost half of the 11,656 athletes were women, assuring a win for the fight for equal representation in sports.
That representation gave the world some of the most memorable, women-led moments in this year’s Olympics:
First medals for countries
- Bermuda’s first-ever gold medal was won by triathlete Flora Duffy who completed the tasks of swimming, cycling, and running in under two hours.
- Weightlifter Polina Gurveya
,won the first medal (silver) for Turkmenistan since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. - San Marino became the smallest country ever to win a medal thanks to trap shooter Alessandra Perilli, who ended up with the bronze medal at the podium.
- Yulimar Rojas from Venezuela set a new triple jump world record and became the first woman from her country to win an Olympic gold medal.
New records
Japan achieved historic moments as its women’s basketball team won their first-ever medal, (silver), after an intense final against Team U.S.A. Additionally, Japan’s Kokona Hiraki, a 12-year-old skateboarder, became the youngest Olympic medalist by winning silver.
Team U.S.A.
- Wrestler Tamyra Mensah-Stock became the first U.S. Black woman to win gold in her discipline.
- The women’s basketball team won their seventh straight gold medal, with team members Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi becoming the first-ever five-time basketball gold medalists.
- After a sweeping 3-0 final against Brazil, the women’s volleyball team obtained their first Olympic gold medal.
- Minnesota gymnast Suni Lee won the all-around category gold medal as the first Hmong American athlete.
- Carissa Moore took the gold after the first-ever women’s surfing competition.
USF and St. Petersburg representation
USF was represented by eight former student-athletes, coaches, and staff members.
- Ken Eriksen and Michele Latimer were part of the coaching staff of Team U.S.A.’s women’s softball team, with Eriksen as head coach. They brought home the silver medal after a 2-0 final against Japan.
- Shadae Lawrence, track and field volunteer assistant coach, was part of Team Jamaica, whose athlete Elaine Thompson-Herah became the first woman to win a “double-double”.
- Former USF women’s soccer players Evelyne Viens (Canada), Demi Stokes (Great Britain), Olivia Chance (New Zealand) and Christiane Endler (Chile)
,represented their respective countries. Viens assured the Olympic gold medal, Canada’s first gold in women’s soccer. - Former USF sailing team member Paige Railey represented Team U.S.A. during her third Olympic games.
- Trayvon Bromell, a St. Petersburg native track and field athlete, overcame his injuries to represent Pinellas County, and U.S.A. in Tokyo.
