Obscure Olympic Sports


As the Tokyo Olympics wrapped up last week obviously most fans paid attention to the popular events such as swimming, gymnastics, and the track and field sports.   With over 40 sports, most sports were overlooked unless you subscribed to a streaming service to see them.  Here are some results you might have missed:

3x3 Basketball:  Led by Duke women's basketball head coach Kara Lawson, the U.S. Olympic 3x3 Women's Basketball Team (8-1) earned the first gold medal in Olympic 3x3 basketball history after defeating the Russian Olympic Committee (6-3) 18-15.  In the men's tournament, tournament top scorer Lasmanis sank a huge two from the left wing to cap his game-high 10 points as Latvia downed the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) 21-18 in a thrilling gold medal game.  The U.S. men's team did not qualify for the Olympics.

Archery:  Turkey's Mete Gazoz won the Olympic men's individual archery, his country's first gold medal at the Tokyo Games.  South Korea won the team gold medal over Chinese Taipei.  An San won the women's gold medal for South Korea and also led South Korea to the team gold medal.  

Badminton:  Indonesian women’s badminton duo Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu brought home the gold medal after a win against China’s Jia Yifan and Chen Qingchen at the 2020 Tokyo Games.  Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin will go down in history as the men’s doubles team that won Taiwan’s first-ever gold medal in badminton at the Olympics.

Equestrian:  Jessica Springsteen, the daughter of American rock-legend Bruce Springsteen won a silver medal as part of the U.S. equestrian jumping team.  Springsteen and her teammates lost to Sweden in a thrilling jump-off.

Fencing:  Lee Kiefer became the first American to win a gold medal in individual foil.  She took the gold after a 15-13 win over Russian Inna Deriglazova.  Hong Kong's Cheung Ka-long won the men's gold with a 15-14 win against Russian Kirill Borodachevi.

Handball:  France swept the gold medal in Team Handball.  The women beat the Russians 30-25.  The men's team topped Denmark 25-23.  

Field Hockey:  The Netherlands beat Argentina 3-1 for the women's gold medal.  Belgium won their first Olympic men's hockey title, beating Australia 3-2 in a penalty shootout after the match finished in a 1-1 draw.

Rugby:  Fiji was able to successfully defend its gold medal from 2016 as they defeated New Zealand 27-12.  New Zealand beat France 26-12 for women's gold medal.

Volleyball:  The U.S. women's team won their first Olympic gold medal by defeating Brazil 3-0.  Three-time U.S. volleyball Olympian Jordan Larson delivered the final kill to complete a three-set sweep against Brazil in the gold medal match. France completed one of the best underdog stories of the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday by winning the men's volleyball gold medal. France had not finished higher than eighth place in any of its four previous appearances at the Summer Olympics. The gold-winning side busted out a two-set lead over the Russian Olympic Committee before the match was forced into a fifth set. The first four sets in Olympic volleyball are played to 25. The final set is a race to 15 points. France used the first of its two match points to finish off the Russians and capture the nation's first-ever gold and overall medal in men's volleyball. 

Unfortunately there is not enough time and space to detail all of the other obscure sports from the Tokyo Olympics.  For more information on other sports, click on the links below:


  





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