Olympic Games, athletic festival that originated in ancient Greece and was revived in the late 19th century. Before the 1970s the Games were officially limited to competitors with amateur status, but in the 1980s many events were opened to professional athletes. Currently, the Games are open to all, even the top professional athletes in basketball and football (soccer). The ancient Olympic Games included several of the sports that are now part of the Summer Games program, which at times has included events in as many as 32 different sports. In 1924 the Winter Games were sanctioned for winter sports. An ancient Panhellenic festival held every fourth year and made up of contests of sports, music, and literature with the victor’s prize a crown of wild olive. Jamaican Usain Bolt, who won gold medals in three sprint races for the third consecutive time and ended his career, maybe, tied with Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi for the most Olympic track and field titles. Here is the list of 10 most dominant American athletes of the 2016 games.
1.Ashton Eaton, track and field
Ashton James Eaton was born on born January 21, 1988 in Portland, Oregon. He holds the world record in the indoor heptathlon event. Eaton was the second decathlete (after Roman Šebrle) to break the 9,000-point barrier in the decathlon, with 9,039 points, a score he bettered on August 29, 2015, when he beat his own world record with a score of 9,045 points. Eaton is only the third Olympian (after Bob Mathias of the US and Great Britain’s Daley Thompson) to achieve back-to-back gold medals in the decathlon. Eaton competed for the University of Oregon, where he was a five-time NCAA champion, and won The Bowerman award in 2010. In 2011, Eaton won the first international medal of his career, a silver, in the decathlon at the 2011 World Championships. The following year, Eaton broke his own world record in the heptathlon at the 2012 World Indoor Championships, and then broke the world record in the decathlon at the Olympic Trials. After setting the world record, Eaton won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He successfully defended his Olympic title in Rio 2016 by winning the decathlon gold medal and tying the Olympic record. Eaton ran the 100 meters in 10.46, long-jumped over 26 feet and pole-vaulted 17 feet. His father Roslyn Eaton also played the sport. His mother was an athlete and a dancer.
2.Katie Ledecky, swimming
Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky was born on March 17, 1997 in Washington, D.C.. She is the daughter of Mary Gen (Hagan) and David Ledecky. She is considered one of the greatest female swimmers of all time. She won 7 Olympic gold medals and 15 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. At the 2012 London Olympic Games as a 15-year-old, Ledecky won the gold medal in the women’s 800-metre freestyle. Four years later, she left Rio de Janeiro as the most decorated female athlete of the 2016 Olympic Games, with four gold medals, one silver medal, and two world records. In total, she has won 38 medals (30 golds, 7 silvers, and 1 bronze) in major international competitions, spanning the Summer Olympics, World Championships, and Pan Pacific Championships. she has broken fourteen world records. Ledecky’s success has earned her Swimming World’s Female World Swimmer of the Year a record-breaking five times. Ledecky was also named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 2017, international female Champion of Champions by L’Équipe in 2014 and 2017, United States Olympic Committee Female Athlete of the Year in 2013, 2016 and 2017, and Sportswoman of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation in 2017. she is the most dominant athlete in the world.
3.Simone Biles, gymnastics
Simone Arianne Biles was born on March 14, 1997 in in Columbus, Ohio. She is an American artistic gymnast. Biles is considered one of the greatest and most dominant gymnasts of all time. Biles’ seven Olympic medals also ties Shannon Miller for the most Olympic medals won by an American female gymnast. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Biles won individual gold medals in the all-around, vault, and floor; bronze on balance beam; and gold as part of the United States team, dubbed the “Final Five”.[6] At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, she won bronze on balance beam, as well as silver with the United States team, after struggling with “the twisties”, a temporary loss of air balance awareness. Biles is a five-time World all-around champion, five-time World floor exercise champion, three-time World balance beam champion, two-time World vault champion, a seven-time United States national all-around champion, and a member of the gold medal-winning American teams at the 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. Additionally, she is a three-time World silver medalist and a three-time World bronze medalist. Biles is the gymnast with the most World medals (25) and most World gold medals (19), having surpassed Vitaly Scherbo’s record 23 World medals by winning her 24th and 25th, both gold, at the 2019 competition in Stuttgart. Biles is the sixth woman to win an individual all-around title at both the World Championships and the Olympics.
4.Tianna Bartoletta, track and field
Tianna Bartoletta was born on August 30, 1985 in Elyria, Ohio. She is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the long jump and short sprinting events. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she placed fourth in the 100m race then won her first gold by leading off the world record-setting 4 × 100 m relay team. At the 2016 Summer Olympics she won two more golds, first with a personal best to win the long jump then again leading off the victorious 4 × 100 m relay team. She won three gold medals. She was a winner of the long jump World Championship in 2005 and 2015, plus the long jump World Indoor Championship in 2006. She also was a pusher on the U.S. bobsled team in 2012. In August of 2020 Tianna Bartoletta would be joining SPIRE Institute and Academy as an ambassador. Tianna was named a 2002 American Track & Field Outdoor All-American. became the third athlete in Ohio history to win four events at a state championship meet two years in a row.
5.Maggie Steffens, water polo
Margaret Ann Steffens was born on June 4, 1993. She is an American water polo player. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Steffens set a new Olympic record for the most number of goals scored by an individual player in women’s water polo at the Olympic Games. She won the gold medal with the United States at the 2012,[1] 2016[2] and 2020 Summer Olympics. Steffens played water polo at Monte Vista High School and helped the team win their league championship in 2007, 2008, and 2009. In 2015, Steffens scored four goals in the semifinal game against USC, which Stanford won, 9-8. In 2017, she scored three goals in Stanford’s 8-7 championship victory against UCLA, including the winning goal with 9 seconds left. In 2015 and again in 2017 she was named the MVP of the NCAA tournament. Steffens graduated from Stanford in June, 2017 with a B.S. degree in Science, Technology, and Society.
6.Helen Maroulis, wrestling
Helen Louise Maroulis was born on September 19, 1991 in Rockville, Maryland. Helen Maroulis’s parents are Paula and Yiannis “John” Maroulis. Her father is Greek. She is an American freestyle wrestler who competes in the women’s 55-kg 53-kg and 57-kg categories. Being too careful cost her a chance to become the first American woman to win two Olympic gold medals in freestyle wrestling. She lost to Risako Kawai of Japan 2-1 in the 57-kilogram semifinals. She was a gold medalist at the 2015 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada and a gold medalist at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil she became the first-ever American to win a gold medal in women’s freestyle wrestling at the Olympic Games. She went to join Missouri Baptist University women’s wrestling team in Saint Louis, Missouri, before ultimately transferring to compete for Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.[6] At the age-group level, Maroulis was a three-time Junior World medalist (bronze in 2008 & 2010, silver in 2011). Maroulis beat Saori Yoshida 4-1 to win a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. This was the first Olympic gold medal for the United States in a women’s wrestling event.[8] Maroulis attributes a large portion of her success to the coaching of Valentin Kalika.
7.Matthew Centrowitz, track and field
Matthew Centrowitz Jr. was born on October 18, 1989 in Beltsville, Maryland. Matthew Centrowitz is an American middle-distance runner. He is the 2016 Olympic champion in the 1500 meters. He became a prominent figure in U.S. running when he won a bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. A seasoned competitor with a potent finishing kick, he competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 1500 meters—where he finished 4th by only 0.04 seconds. At the 2013 World Championships in Athletics, Centrowitz improved on his bronze medal performance with a silver in the same event. At the 2016 World Indoor Championships, he won his first major international championship in the 1500 meters. He then won the gold medal in the 1500 meters at the 2016 Summer Olympics[3] in Rio de Janeiro with the slowest winning time since 1932, becoming the first U.S. runner to win the event since 1908. His time of 4:08.38 for the mile at the Penn Relays in April 2007 established a meet record.[10] That same year, he also went on to set the Maryland state record over 1600 meters in 4:04.09 [11] and won a gold medal at the Pan American Junior Championships held in São Paulo, Brazil in the 1500m run. In 2011, he announced his decision to turn professional, forgoing his further participation on the University of Oregon team. His decision to turn professional resulted in his becoming a Nike-sponsored athlete, and he joined the Nike Oregon Project, where he was coached by Alberto Salazar.
8.Michael Phelps, swimming
Michael Fred Phelps II was born on June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland. Michael Phelps is an American former competitive swimmer. His mother, Deborah Sue “Debbie” Phelps, is a middle school principal. His father, Michael Fred Phelps, is a retired Maryland State Trooper He won total of 28 medals. Michael Fred Phelps holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals (23),[9] Olympic gold medals in individual events (13), and Olympic medals in individual events (16).[10] When Phelps won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, he broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Phelps won four gold and two silver medals, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won five gold medals and one silver. This made him the most successful athlete of the Games for the fourth Olympics. He has won 82 medals in major international long course competitions, of which 65 were gold, 14 silver, and three bronze, spanning the Olympics, the World Championships, and the Pan Pacific Championships. Phelps’s international titles and record-breaking performances have earned him the World Swimmer of the Year Award eight times and American Swimmer of the Year Award eleven times, as well as the FINA Swimmer of the Year Award in 2012 and 2016. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro,[14] his fifth Olympics, he was selected by his team to be the flag bearer of the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations.
9.Ryan Crouser, track and field
Ryan Crouser was born on December 18, 1992 in Portland, Oregon. Ryan Crouser is an American shot putter and discus thrower. His father, Mitch Crouser , was an alternate on the 1984 Olympic discus team. He is a two time Olympic gold medalist and Olympic Record holder and the World Record holder in the shot put, both indoor and outdoor. He 2021, he threw 22.82 m (74 ft 10+1⁄2 in) to set a new world indoor shotput record (pending ratification) in Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA. The previous world indoor record of 22.66 m (74 ft 4 in) was set by Barnes in 1989.[2] Crouser also had a 22.70 m (74 ft 5+1⁄2 in) throw in the fourth round that broke the 32-year-old world record. Crouser is the reigning consecutive two-time Olympic champion. He won the gold medal in the shot put at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, setting the Olympic Games record of 22.52 m (73 ft 10+1⁄2 in).[4] He defended the Olympic title at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, improving the Olympic record to 23.30 m (76 ft 5+1⁄4 in). All six of his throws in the competition broke his previous 2016 Olympic Record. In 2020, he was named a finalist for Male Track and Field World Athlete of the Year[6] by World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field. In 2020 he won third on the world all time list.
10.Claressa Shields, boxing
Claressa Maria Shields was born on March 17, 1995 in Flint, Michigan. Claressa Shields is an American professional boxer and mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title since March 2021; the undisputed female middleweight title from 2019 to 2020; and the unified WBC and IBF female super middleweight titles from 2017 to 2018. As of November 2020, she is ranked as the world’s best active female light middleweight by The Ring[5] and BoxRec,[6] as well as the best active female boxer. Claressa Shields is the only boxer in history, female or male, to hold all four major world titles in boxing—WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO—simultaneously, in two weight classes. She is the first woman to win lineal championships in two weight classes. In a decorated amateur career, Shields won gold medals in the women’s middleweight division at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, making her the first American boxer to win consecutive Olympic medals.
