A gold medal carries all the hopes of a country.
Qianjiang evening news Hour Journalist Cao Linbo
At present, there are 26 countries with one gold medal in the gold medal list of Tokyo Olympic Games, and there are many gold medals among them. Only one gold medal bears all the expectations of this country and creates the history of this country.
The rugby sevens final of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games can be called the peak matchup. New Zealand is the triple world cup champion and Fiji is the double world cup champion. In the end, Fiji defeated New Zealand 27-12, successfully defending the champion of the project, and won the only gold medal for Fiji so far. New Zealand won the silver medal and Argentina won the bronze medal.
In fact, at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Fiji won the men’s rugby sevens championship. Before the Rio Olympic Games, Fiji participated in 14 Summer Olympic Games and 3 Winter Olympic Games, but it never got any medals.
In this Tokyo Olympic Games, they once again successfully defended their title with strong strength. In the men’s rugby sevens, Fiji is a top power. This stems from their strong popular base.
Since New Zealand and Britain brought this sport to Fiji in the late 19th century, rugby has gradually become the national sport here. Almost all the citizens are enthusiastic about it. Boys are proud to enter Fiji’s national echelons at all levels, and there are countless rugby clubs, large and small, in China. There are 890,000 people in China, with 80,000 registered rugby players, accounting for nearly 10%! It is no exaggeration to describe that all men, women and children in the country play rugby.
At the Tokyo Olympic Games, Fiji sent a delegation of 30 people: 12 of them participated in the men’s rugby sevens (and one reserve player) and 12 participated in the women’s rugby sevens.
However, there are many unknown stories behind this popular gold medal.
In April this year, Fiji ushered in the second wave of COVID-19 epidemic. In order to participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games, Fiji gave full support to the rugby team. The government quickly blocked the border and shut down all foreign-related flights.
In order to participate in the Olympic Games this time, all the Fiji team members were separated from their families and isolated at the designated place from the beginning of April. They even had to build a gym in the garage of the station to keep training, and then they were isolated in Australia and Japan. Fiji captain Jerry Tuwai said, "I miss my family so much that I almost want to skydive from the plane and go home to see them."
At the beginning of July, the Fiji team set out and boarded a cargo plane to transport frozen fish. After many hardships, they arrived in Tokyo to participate in the Olympic Games.
In the end, Fiji rugby team defended its title as expected. Although Fiji could not go to the streets as it did in the last Olympic Games because of the epidemic, they still lit fireworks and celebrated with the players from a distance.
Two days later, the Fiji women’s rugby sevens team also performed brilliantly in this Olympic Games. Although Fiji narrowly lost to New Zealand this time, it finally beat Britain to win the bronze medal, which has also created the best record of Fiji women’s rugby in the Olympic Games.
The presence of Bermuda’s delegation may be at most in the entrance ceremony of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. This country, which sounds quite mysterious, also achieved a breakthrough of zero gold medal in this Olympic Games.
In the women’s triathlon of the Tokyo Olympic Games, Duffy, an athlete from Bermuda, won the first gold medal in the Olympic history of the Bermuda delegation, and Bermuda became the smallest country in the Olympic history.
"This is a great moment, it’s incredible! I will be proud of this day for the rest of my life. Winning the first Olympic gold medal for Bermuda is of extraordinary significance far beyond my personal dream. " As one of the only two members of the Bermuda delegation, Duffy, who fought in the Olympic Games for four times, finally welcomed his dream.
In 2008, 21-year-old Duffy was a fledgling. At the Beijing Olympic Games, her bike broke down and she didn’t win the ranking. Duffy ranked 45th in the 2012 London Olympic Games; In the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, she won the eighth place in the individual Olympic Games, and she finally won the championship in this Olympic Games.
Since then, Bermuda, with an area of only 53 square kilometers and a population of only 63,000, has not only the legend of God and the Sunshine Coast, but also has its own place on the map of the Olympic history gold medal list. The last time a Bermuda athlete stood on the Olympic podium was 45 years ago. The male boxer Clarence Hill won a bronze medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Duffy is now Bermuda’s brightest tourist card. Open Bermuda’s official travel website, the first page is a photo of Duffy, which reads: Bermuda may not be a popular venue for triathlon. But Bermuda has produced a large number of iron athletes (both men and women)-including Olympic athlete Duffy, who brought home Bermuda’s first gold medal.
The Prime Minister of Bermuda sent her a congratulatory voice message. Even michael douglas, a famous Hollywood actress whose mother is from Bermuda, shouted congratulations to her on her social account.
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