Good News Olympic Stories

The Olympics wrapped up a little more than a week ago. And we're aware of all the medallists and final placings for each country.

But some impressive things that happened at the Olympics didn't garner headlines and are worth mentioning.

Below are 7 good news Olympic stories you may have missed.

1. Moms Competing in Hurdles

Qualifying for the Olympics is a huge accomplishment. Making it to multiple games is even more impressive. Now imagine doing so as a parent.

The USA sent two track athletes, that are both moms, to compete in the 400 m. Allyson Felix and Quanera Hayes are proud moms of two year old daughters. For Felix this was her 5th Olympics and in Tokyo she won the bronze medal.

Not too bad! I don't think I could even get tickets to 5 Olympic games let alone qualify to compete as an athlete.

2. Gymnast Makes 8th Olympics

Okasana Chusovitina first completed in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, where she won gold. Tokyo will make her 8th and final games. In that span she competed under a variety of flags as communism ended and new countries were created. 

For anyone that thinks they are too old and it's not possible at their age, remember Oksana's story.

3. No Coach, No Trainer, No Problem

I'll be the first to admit that I've made excuses about my results in the past. If I had access to better programming, coaching, support, I would have produced a better result.

Not anymore.

Anna Kiesenhofer is a 30 year old mathematics teacher from Austria. She competed in the women's road cycling race.

As a relative amateur rookie she didn't have access to the same programming, coaching, nutrition and overall support of the pro riders. 

No problem. 

She approached the Olympics like a math problem and figured out the solution to training, programming, fueling etc and did a good enough job to win gold by a 75 second margin. The resources are there for those will to do the research and the work.

4. Dressel Tosses Gold Medal to Teammate

In swimming, you  can swap different swimmers in for heats and finals. This can be advantageous if a swimmer has a solo event taking place at the same time as a qualifying swim for a relay. This is what happened in the men's 4x100 m free relay for the USA. Caeleb Dressel had a swim in one of his individual events near the heats for the relay. So Brooks Curry swam in the heats in order for the USA to qualify and then Dressel swam on the relay in the final. 

Now while all swimmers, including heats and finals, receive medals, the medal ceremony only includes the 4 swimmers that raced in the final. This means any swimmers from the heats miss out on their '15 minutes'. They don't stand on the podium. They aren't awarded their medal while their anthem is played. And they don't pose for all the media or do any interviews after the fact.

Dressel recognized this and tossed his medal to Curry in the stands so all the cameras and media would pan to him. It was a nice touch way of making sure Curry was recognized. 

5. Brown Defers to de Grasse

In the men's 200 m Canada had 2 athletes in the final, Aaron Brown and Andre de Grasse. No disrespect meant to Brown but this race was all about de Grasse. And he didn't disappoint by winning the gold.

In a classy move, Brown held back leaving the track after the race so de Grasse could meet with the Canadian media first. He recognized a gold medal is impressive and deserves special attention. It was a nice touch and didn't go unnoticed.

6. High Jumpers Share Gold

In the men's high jump the competition came down to two jumpers, one from Italy and the other from Qatar. Both athletes had attempted and made the same heights with the same number of misses. The official then called for a jump off to determine the gold medal winner.

One of the athletes asked the official if it would be possible to have two gold medals awarded and the official agreed. Nice to see sportsmanship be the story of this event.

7. Coach Celebrates for his Athlete

In women's distance swimming Katie Ledecky is the woman to beat. She is a threat in the 200, 400, 800 and 1500 m freestyle.

In the 400 m she faced a challenger from Australia in Ariarne Titmus. And Titmus  was able to beat Ledecky, the world record holder, for gold.

But it wasn't the swimmer's performance so much as the reaction of her coach. Her coach was jumping up and down, throwing his fists in the air and running up and down the aisle.

Sure he looked a little crazy, but doesn't want a coach like that?