Your 3 greatest Olympic moments

[Spice_Weasel]

@runner pat

That is a sprained ankle. A sprain can range from a stretched out ligament to a complete tearing of both.
And the end result of a severe sprain is an unstable ankle which is, as you pointed out, can be career ending at that level of gymnastics.

Good to know.

[LavenderBlue]

@Sarabellum1976

I’m glad they ditched the compulsary figures, though perhaps they ought to change the event name to reflect this.

Now it’s really all about jumps and spins and choreography, and most of the girls probably couldn’t carve the figures on a bet.

They need to retool the entire sport.

There should a slew of separate events in figure skating. Include a straight jumping competition, a team event and then a single combined event. It would vastly improve the sport. Instead we get a jumping fest on the men’s side that I find boring.

My own contribution? Brian Boitano’s beautiful gold medal free skate in 1988. Many Olympic skaters haven’t quite pulled that off. Peggy Fleming singled her double axel in her free skate. Scott Hamilton had an awful free skate and was saved only by his figures.

But Boitano’s performance was one for the ages.

Gordeeva and Grinkov’s two glorious free skates were also sheer heaven. I cried when he passed away at 28 a few years later.

[MadTheSwine]

@Dendarii_Dame

Olga Korbut’s backflip from (and recatching) the top bar on the uneven parallel bars.

I wasn’t around for those Olympics,but just watched a Documentary on Olga,If I had been she woulda been on my list.Not just the uneven parallel,but the entire games,Fascinating.

[chizzuk]

Going only on ones I was actually watching at the time:

1. Kerri Strug’s vault

2. Jason Lezak overtakes Alain Bernard in the final 25m to give the US the gold in the 4x100 relay in Beijing and keep Phelps’ goal alive. My family watches swimming for exactly 1 week every four years and we were screaming at the TV and leaping up and down like our lives depended on it. When the graphic popped up with “1: United States” I think we blew a hole in the ceiling. What an incredible swim.

3. Hasn’t been mentioned yet that I saw, but Matthew Mitcham of Australia putting up a 112.5-point dive on the final dive of the 2008 10m men’s platform to steal the gold away from the Chinese. Just an absolutely perfect dive. The look of utter shock on the Chinese diver’s face and the way Mitcham just kind of gaped and then started sobbing when one of the other Australians came over and exclaimed, “Matthew, you just won the Olympics!” gave me chills. Plus I love it when the Chinese lose in diving (thank you, Ilya Zakharov).

[RedFury]

Must say, Spain’s Gold Medal performance in fútbol at the Camp Nou in the ‘92 Olympics fares first for any number of reasons, both political & sporting. Simply the most amazing Olympic moment I’ve ever lived…with Fermin Cachos’ gold in the 1500 mts in the same Olympics, running a close second. Spain, as one nation, at it’s very best.

Not an easy feat feat by any means.