TOKYO. – With the Olympics still digesting US gymnast Simone Biles’s stunning exit from the team event, champion women made a splash in Tokyo on Wednesday as Australian AriarneTitmus, American Katie Ledecky and Japan’s Yui Ohashi all clinched gold in swimming.
Their powerful showing underscored how women have emerged as the most commanding figures of the first week of the Tokyo Games, at a time of growing concern about the immense pressures on athletes and whether they are getting enough support for mental health.
The Games are taking place without spectators and under a state of emergency in Tokyo, unprecedented measures in the history of the modern Olympics. Tokyo recorded a record 2,848 new cases on Tuesday, the highest since the pandemic began and local governments in three prefectures near Tokyo were likely to see a new state of emergency, media reported.
Simone Biles sent shockwaves through the Summer Games on Tuesday when she dropped out of the team competition on her opening vault after receiving a low mark.
The 24-year-old said the pressure of living up to expectations and her quest for a record gold medal haul had left her no choice but to drop out for her own mental health.
She did not rule out a return to competition starting with Thursday’s all-around event, where she would defend her Olympic title.
Her withdrawal from the team event came hours after tennis superstar Naomi Osaka lost in her Olympic singles event on Tuesday, her first tournament since pulling out of the French Open in May, when she said she had been suffering from depression for nearly three years.
“More could be done” on athlete mental health, the spokesman for the International Olympic Commission Mark Adams told reporters on Wednesday.
He said mental health remained a big issue and said it was a matter that the organization had been working on for some time.
In the pool on Wednesday, women once again stole the show. AriarneTitmus won a second gold medal in Tokyo, her first Olympics. Dubbed the “Terminator”, she accelerated in the final meters to finish ahead of Ledecky, whom she beat for a second time after winning the 400m freestyle on Monday. — Reuters