What Olympic Winners Do With Their Medals
To stash or to sell?
Photo: Instagram/Olympics
What would you do with your most prized possession? You’ll never guess.
To stash or to sell?
The Last Night’s Game Team
1. Team USA Women’s Soccer player Christie Rampone keeps her medals in her pots and pans. Her rationale? Who’s going to look there? THEY WILL NOW
2. Honorable mentions go to a school locker (Bob Suter), their agent's house (Shaun White), in the nightstand (Lindsey Vonn) and the nail polish drawer (Caitlyn Jenner). Then there's the always popular sock drawer, where a slew of Olympic athletes store their medals, including Apolo Ohno, Natalie Coughlin, Mary Lou Retton and Sue Bird. PRIZED POSSESSION
3. Sprinter Carl Lewis put his 1987 medal in his father’s casket at his funeral. He told his mom that he was going to go back and get another one. And he did. MAN OF HIS WORD
4. Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko sold his medal from the 1996 Olympics for a reported $1 million, with the proceeds going to a children's charity he started with his brother. Other athletes have had no choice but to sell their medals to pay their bills. "Miracle On Ice" hockey player Mark Wells sold his medal to pay for back surgery. DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO
5. USA men’s basketball won a disappointing bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic games in Atlanta. Unhappy with the teams’ performance, Carmelo Anthony gave his bronze medal to a family member who auctioned it off for $14,000. ONE MAN’S TRASH IS ANOTHER’S TREASURE
Did you know? This year's Olympic medals are made of recycled metals from small electronic devices like mobile phones. But the medal isn't the only prize. American medal winners receive a bonus for their win. The scale is $37,000 for gold, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze. Thanks to the "Victory Tax," US Olympians earning less than $1 million/year won't have to pay tax on this prize money.
U-S-A! Five Members Of The U.S. Olympic Team To Keep An Eye On
Some you know, some you likely don’t. Regardless, we’re donning our red, white and blue to cheer them on.
Photo: Instagram/Quanesha Burks
Each athlete at the Olympic games comes with a story of perseverance, determination and, in many cases, heartbreak. While we would love to highlight each of the more than 620 athletes competing on Team U.S.A., here are a few that we would like to celebrate.
Love to see it,
The Last Night’s Game Team
P.S. - There's so much more to these athletes' journeys but since we pride ourselves on short and sweet coverage, click the links to dive further into their stories.
1. Quanesha Burks is from a town of 14,000 people but had her sights set on college. When Burks wasn't training during high school, she worked at McDonald's to help her grandmother pay off her car insurance. Because of her hard work ethic and athletic ability, Burks received a scholarship to college, and while it was a bit of a broken road to get here, she is now a full-time professional long jumper. What did she eat to celebrate making the U.S. Olympic team? A McDonald's medium fries with no salt and a side of sweet and sour sauce. SET THE BAR HIGH
2. The Bruce Tramps can unite over something more than his summer concert series. Jessica, the daughter of the boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, will compete on the U.S. Olympic Equestrian team as part of the jumping squad. Springsteen began riding at the age of four and is now ranked third on the U.S. rider list. Tokyo will be her first Olympic appearance. (For the record, Springsteen fans are called Bruce Tramps as in "tramps like us.") BORN TO RUN
3. There are so many stellar women to watch, from Sue Bird (basketball) to Simone Biles (gymnastics) to Katie Ledecky (swimming). We couldn't be more excited to see these women and those of the U.S.W.N.T. (soccer) dominate in their sport while cheering each other along. Did you know that women have won more than 50% of Team U.S.A.'s medals at the last two Summer Olympics? Biles said, "I've been here for so long, so to be a mentor for them has meant everything to me, and to share these accomplishments and these goals." BETTER TOGETHER
4. Filling the giant flippers of Michael Phelps is Caeleb Dressel. Dressel became a household name in Rio, where he won two medals in the swimming relays. As the experienced veteran on the men's team, the swim team co-captain has a chance to become the fourth swimmer in history to win seven medals in a single Olympic Games. Dressel stayed sane during his time off in 2020 by hiking the Appalachian Trail with his wife. As he revealed on his podcast "The Ben and Caeleb Show," the trail taught him more about life than the Olympics. DEEP DIVE
5. Allyson Felix, the most decorated athlete in the world, teamed up with Athleta to help moms fund childcare when they're competing. Except for nursing infants, athlete's children cannot attend the games. Felix and Athleta gave out six- $10,000 grants to female Olympians to help with childcare while they're in Tokyo. It wasn't until late June that Tokyo Organizers decided to let athlete moms who are nursing bring their child to Tokyo after athletes from all over the world said not being able to do so was forcing them to choose between being a mother and an athlete. WOMEN SUPPORTING WOMEN
Our 5 Favorite Storylines To Follow During The Summer Olympics
Expect the unexpected.
Photo: Unsplash
The Olympics are filled with thousands of stories, with over 11,000 athletes competing. It was hard to narrow it down, but here are five storylines worth following during the Tokyo Olympics.
Gold medal-worthy small talk,
The Last Night’s Game Team
1. Wondering why it seems like the Olympic coverage appears to be overly female-friendly? The abundance of media coverage is seemingly because they’re the names we’re most likely to hear announced on the podium. Women have won more than 50% of Team U.S.A.’s medals at the last two Summer Olympics. GET IT GIRLS
2. Keep an eye on Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim, golfers from South Korea. The two PGA (Professional Golfers Association) golfers dropped out of the British Open earlier this month to focus on their preparation for the Olympics. An Olympic medal for these two athletes (or any other South Korean athlete) would not only make their country proud but would provide the Olympian with an exemption from mandatory two-year service in the South Korean military. This exemption is something that not even the members of international sensation K-pop group BTS are able to achieve. EYES ON THE PRIZE
3. With the topic of transgender children in sports being hotly debated in the U.S., Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, will represent her country and proudly carry the title of the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics. After failed efforts from neighboring countries to ban her from the Commonwealth Games, Hubbard pushed on, with support from her fellow New Zealanders, and landed a spot on the Olympic team. SHINE ON
4. They were, and then they weren’t. The Japanese government was prepared to allow fans, Japan residents only, at Olympic competitions. Then earlier this month, they changed their mind, declaring a state of emergency due to COVID and will no longer allow fans at any of the Summer Olympic competitions in Tokyo. This ban on fans includes family and friends of the athletes competing as foreign fans were banned back in March. CHEERING FROM AFAR
5. There are five sports taking place in the Olympics for the first time. Look for your favorite men’s and women’s athletes to compete in surfing, sport climbing, skateboarding (park & street), karate (kumite & kata) and softball/baseball. While softball/baseball was voted out of the Olympics in 2006, they’re back and will bring the most new athletes to the Games, with 144 men and 90 women participating in the sport. GOING FOR GOLD