For some of the major stars who didn’t live up to their hype, the Olympics in Tokyo was a disappointment.
For some of the major stars who didn’t live up to their hype, the Olympics in Tokyo was a disappointment. Here are a handful of the athletes that failed to shine on the greatest platform in sports:
Novak Djokovic is a tennis player from Serbia.
With wins at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon already under his belt, Djokovic fell short of being the first player to achieve a Golden Slam, winning all four majors as well as Olympic gold in the same year.
Before falling, Djokovic stormed into the semi-finals, leading Alexander Zverev by a set and a break. After a racquet-smashing bronze-medal defeat to Pablo Carreno Busta, he self-destructed before withdrawing from the mixed doubles match for third place.
Uchimura, Kohei
Uchimura, a Japanese gymnast, came to the Games intending to write a storybook ending to his Olympic career.
Instead, his Tokyo campaign turned into a nightmare as the hometown favorite slid off the horizontal bar on the first day, missing out on a spot in the final.
Due to recurrent shoulder issues, the 32-year-old opted to focus on a single apparatus rather than defend the back-to-back all-around titles he won in 2012 and 2016.
“I’ve been able to equal the level of performance I’d attained in training in the past three Olympic Games –- but not this time,” he remarked after the bet flopped.
However, a sad Uchimura suggested that he could postpone retirement until after the world championships in Japan in October, allowing him to depart on a high note.
Noah Lyles is a young man who grew up in
When he came to Japan, the American sprinter was strongly expected to add an Olympic gold medal to his 2019 world championship 200m titles and to head a new generation of American sprinters projected to dominate in the post-Usain Bolt era.
The 24-year-old from Florida, on the other hand, failed to reclaim his best form in the 200m, just avoiding a shock elimination in the semi-finals before being soundly beaten in the final by Canada’s Andre de Grasse.
Bromell, a teammate of Trayvon Lyles, was the clear favorite in the 100m coming into the Games, having set the world record with a blazing 9.77sec during a competition in Florida in July.
However, the 26-year-old appeared to be off the pace from the start in Tokyo, placing fourth in his first heat with a slow 10.05sec before being ousted in the semi-finals with a time of only 10.00.
Naomi Osaka Osaka ignited the Olympic cauldron to commemorate the Games’ start, but her hope for triumph fizzled out on her return to tennis following a mental health hiatus.
She was knocked out in the third round after losing to eventual silver medalist Marketa Vondrousova in straight sets, citing the strain of trying to capture Japan’s first Olympic tennis gold as “a bit overwhelming.”
Kento Momota
Momota, a two-time world champion who entered the Tokyo Games as the top seed after capturing a record 11 championships in 2019, faced high expectations from his home crowd.
The 26-year-old was knocked out in the first round by an unseeded opponent and admitted to feeling intimidated in front of the cameras.
Daiya Seto,
A Japanese swimmer wanted to defend his 400m and 200m medley championships in Tokyo, but he failed to qualify for the finals in both events and finished fourth in the latter.
Women’s national football team of the United States
After a heartbreaking quarter-final loss in 2016, the United States returned to Tokyo as gold-medal favorites, aiming to become the first women’s team to win both the World Cup and the Olympics.
But a 3-0 loss to Sweden in their first game ended a 44-match unbeaten streak, and the team never truly clicked for Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, and Alex Morgan, who are all aging stars.
The Americans had to settle for bronze after losing to Canada in the semi-finals for the first time in 20 years.