Pop-Culturalist.com

The 2016 Rio Games wrap up this weekend, and in anticipation of the intense Olympic withdrawal that will befall us all, we’re basking in the glow of some of our favorite Olympic moments from previous and current Summer Games.

Note: Yes, gymnastics dominates this list. No, we’re not even a little bit sorry. 

Jesse Owens out-runs the haters.

Before there was Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, or Usain Bolt, there was Jesse Owens, a man who proved that sport is bigger than what happens on the track. Owens famously ran to gold in the 1936 Games, which were held in Berlin, the heart of Hitler’s Nazi state. The African-American son of a sharecropper upset Nazi notions of Aryan racial superiority by taking the gold and showing that the only “race” that matters is the one to the finish line.

Nadia Comaneci achieves perfection.

Nadia Comaneci was just 14 years old when she did what no one had ever done before: achieve a perfect “10” in gymnastics. It was this fluid routine on the uneven bars that made her a legend in her native Romania and around the world. Though the scoring system has since changed (routines are now assigned maximum values from which judges deduct points for execution), the level of perfection that Comaneci performed is unlikely to be challenged any time soon.

Kerri Strug gets the job done.

The 1996 “Magnificent Seven” U.S. women’s gymnastics team was assembled specifically to take gold on home territory: Atlanta, Georgia. Though the team was competitive for the majority of the competition, it all came down to a single vault. Kerri Strug, who had just torn ligaments in her ankle, had to fly high and stick the landing. She delivered– on one foot. Strug’s routine was enough to secure gold for the home team.

Sexy Alexei Nemov demonstrates class and composure.

Alexei Nemov established his reputation as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time in the 1996 Atlanta Games. This Russian heartthrob’s personality on the floor made him a fan favorite. Though he won an astounding twelve medals at the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Games, his final appearance at 2004 in Athens was not as successful, and his scores were low. After he received a low score on the high bar, the audience revolted and filled the stadium with a chorus of boos to show their displeasure at Nemov’s treatment by the judges. The crowd was so vocal that they stopped the competition for a solid 15 minutes. They only quieted when Nemov himself stepped onto the floor and pled with them to cease so that other athletes had a fair chance to compete. He had no hope of medaling at that point, but he showed that you don’t need a medal to be a class act. Bravo, sir.

Nastia Liukin flies to gold.

At the storied 2008 Beijing Games, Nastia Liukin— daughter of two former Russian Olympians– stood out by taking gold in the women’s all-around competition. It was a crowning of gymnastic royalty. Liukin is one of the greatest gymnasts because she never sacrificed artistry as she effortlessly demonstrated technical skills: between her lovely pirouettes on the bars and her fluid, balletic moves in her floor routine, she kept the “artistic” in artistic gymnastics. She’s now slaying it as one of NBC’s gymnastics commentators– we’re glad to have her around in Rio!

Katie Ledecky blows everyone else out of the water.

Katie Ledecky‘s fantastic performance in the water deserves a spot on this list. As the most decorated Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps understandably dominated the discussion surrounding men’s swimming this year. Let’s call a spade a spade, though: the real story was Katie Ledecky, the 19-year-old wunderkind who didn’t just win, but blew away the competition. What makes Michael Phelps so exciting is that his races are dramatic– he typically wins by fractions of a second. Not so with Katie Ledecky. In the 800-meter freestyle, her final individual event, Ledecky won by a jaw-dropping 11 seconds– Phelps can’t say the same. Her lead was so great that it wasn’t even a contest. We can’t wait for her to wow us again in 2020.

What memorable moments will the 2020 Tokyo Games bring? We have to wait four long years to find out. In the meantime, relish the last remaining days of Rio 2016, and watch for new moments that we’ll remember long after the Olympic flame moves on. 

Photo Credit: NBCUniversal