10 best Olympic moments: Australia’s greatest athlete Jess Fox was the star of week one
A horse, a monument which sits in silence, and a girl who had five knee operations have been lauded among our top 10 stars of week one of the Games.
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The first week of the Olympics has contained good, bad and ugly moments but the best were majestic. Here’s our top 10.
1. The Fox hunt: It’s not just Jess Fox’s two gold medals that sparkle so brightly but the way she lit up the Games with smiles and waves and chats to everyone from A-list celebrities to humble gatekeepers in her country of birth.
Fox is Australia’s greatest athlete. She absorbed pressure which would unhinge most people and turned it into the super fuel that drove her to two vastly different golds, one by setting a swift early time, the next with a feverishly pressurised chase as the last competitor. Brilliant.
2. Eiffel power: Brisbane 2032 Games officials did well not to hide in a corner when they saw the stunning grandeur of the beach volleyball competition in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Suddenly Stefan’s Skyneedle on the Brisbane River just seemed a tad smaller.
3. Ariarne’s glory: For three years coach Dean Boxall has fretted that her new superstar status would distract and undermine Ariarne Titmus’ bid for a second 400m gold. In customary fashion, she surged to victory with four wheel drive-like predictability and power.
4. Brilliant Biles: The greatest story of the Games, one which had some of the finest athletes of the century scrambling for selfies like kids at a Taylor Swift concert. She continued her 11-year unbeaten run in all-round competition and her comeback from anxiety issues in Tokyo stretches far beyond sport. She has become a figure of global inspiration.
5. Mollie’s moment: Mollie O’Callaghan looked nervous and restless before her 200m freestyle final. She always does. But the blue-collar warrior got it right on the night to swim the race of her life and snatch the 200m freestyle from Titmus as women dominated Australia’s gold rush.
6. In-Seine horse power: Opinions were flowing back and forth about the merits of having an opening ceremony on a river but a majestic prolonged sequence involving a silver horse being ridden upstream elevated the entire show and briefly made the super-stinky Seine look as pure as a fizzing glass of mineral water which is not easy to do.
7. Neon Leon: French superstar Leon Marchand has pocketed three goals but the ear-popping roar for his first in the individual medley was clocked at 106 decibels. They experts tell us that was like a Boeing jet passing 100m over the stadium. Really? That high? It seemed closer.
8. Beautiful bronze: Natalya Diehm’s BMX bronze – the first BMX medal by an Australian woman at the Games – came after five knee reconstructions. Australian staff who saw her break down in Tokyo, shed tears. They thought they would never see her again.
9. Amazing Grace: Ever-smiling Grace Brown only took up cycling at age 23 when injuries halted her athletics career and just before retirement she scored a typically bold win in the women’s time trial. Our most underrated gold.
10. Kaylee’s clout: Under-rated, gritty, and with a fearlessness forged from family hardships, Kaylee McKeown again dominated the women’s backstroke which was a reward for driving herself to obscene lengths at training. “No-one in the world does what she does at training,‘’ says sister and fellow Olympian Taylor.
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Originally published as 10 best Olympic moments: Australia’s greatest athlete Jess Fox was the star of week one
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