Jolanda Neff is a person the whole world can take great pride in and celebrate with [see photo]. This proud Swiss team member rides her bike over rocks, up shear mountain climbs, through the gaps in trees, and down injury defying slopes with her blond-haired pony tail invariable flowing in the breeze. I have a super crush on this young women because of her courage, determination, riding style, and the pure joy she brings to all spectators when she clears out in front of a world class field and dominates it. She does not always win her races but she is always a winner. Celebrating Jolanda as a newly minted Olympic champion gives me just a smidgen of the joy that she seems to derive while out there riding a bike in some of the most difficult conditions imaginable.
Ariane Titmus provided us all with one of the great moments in Australian sport. She beat Katie Ledecky who is arguably the greatest middle distance women swimmer the world has ever seen. I have had a massive crush on Katie since the first time I saw her swim. Like every individual who is truly exceptional at some aspect of life: Katie makes what she does look easy. This 400 metre women's final at the Tokyo Olympics will surely go down in history as one of the greatest events ever seen in world sport. As you will see when you watch the video [link provided below] Ariane sat off the shoulder of Katie after the first 50 metres. Thereafter she never let Katie gain more than a body length of advantage over her. As they headed towards the 300 metre turn Ariane was moving up on Katie's shoulder again. Then for the last 100 metres Ariane matched it with the all-time champion and in the final 20 metres she began to move away. Ariane had beaten the Queen of the pool. Even if she swims faster times in the future - Ariane will never swim better than she did in those last 100 metres of that final.
Richard
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