Underdogs become heroes in Rio Olympics

Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig reacts after winning her women’s singles final tennis match against Germany’s Angelique Kerber at the Olympic Tennis Center in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday. / AFP-Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

The Rio Olympics have attracted extra attention as a handful of little-known athletes surprised the world by winning gold medals. These underdog athletes defeated world No. 1s in some sports to bring their countries’ first Olympic medals home.

First-ever Olympic medals

Kosovan judoka, Majlinda Kelmendi, made Olympic history, by winning her country’s first-ever Olympic medal after beating Italy’s Odette Giuffrida in the women’s 52 kilogram judo final, Aug. 7.

The dramatic movement came only two years after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized Kosovo as a sovereign state. Kelmendi, a Kosovan-Albanian, is not an Olympic debutant — she competed as an Albanian team member in the 2012 Games — but these are the first Games in which she represented Kosovo, a country hit by a series of massacres in war during the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

“We are the same people as Albania. So competing for them back then and for Kosovo now means I have represented my people always,” she told TIME Magazine.

Monica Puig in tennis also toppled a titan to give Puerto Rico its first ever Olympic gold. On Saturday, the world No. 34 stunned German world No. 2 Angelique Kerber with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 victory in women’s singles final at the Olympic Tennis Centre.

It was an unexpected victory for Puig, who has won only one WTA singles title won in 2014, to stun Kerber, whose illustrious career contains the 2016 Australian Open win and eight other WTA singles titles.

The victory brought Puerto Rico the first gold in the country’s consecutive Olympic appearances since 1948.

Singaporean swimmer Joseph Schooling is now enjoying what Korea’s swimming star Park Tae-hwan enjoyed eight years ago. In the men’s 100 meter butterfly final, Schooling clocked a time of 50.39 seconds to set an Olympic record and outrace Michael Phelps, his idol and the most decorated Olympian ever with 28 medals.

The splash Schooling has made brought not only Singapore’s first Olympic gold but immense popularity for the 21-year-old. Another perk for Schooling is that the country may allow him to postpone his mandatory military service.

Like South Korea, Singapore obliges all able-bodied men over 18 to serve in the military for about two years. For the Rio Games, the swimmer was already granted a deferment in October 2013, and the Straits Times quoted the Singaporean defense minister saying Schooling may be given another deferment for the next Olympics in Tokyo.

Vietnamese shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh and Fiji’s rugby team also became their countries’ first Olympic gold medalists.

Singapore’s Joseph Schooling reacts on the medal stand after his men’s 100m butterfly gold medal time of 50.39 in the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Friday. / UPI-Yonhap

No. 1s collapse

While the underdogs were sending out shockwaves, medal favorites and World No. 1s had to realize that sometimes no one knows what will happen in sports.

That was the case for South Korean judokas. For the Rio Games, South Korea sent four world No. 1s — Kim Won-jin in the 60 kilograms; An Baul, 66 kilograms; An Chang-rim, 73 kilograms; and Gwak Dong-han, 90 kilograms.

Domestic judo federation officials were confident, saying “We expect at least two gold but we can collect medals in any weight category.”

However, Kim suffered an early elimination in the quarterfinals and An Chang-rim was knocked out in the round of 16. An Baul made it into the final but lost to Italian No. 26 Fabio Basile, while Gwak saved face with a bronze.

In archery, men’s world No. 1 Kim Woo-jin set a world record in the individual ranking round after scoring 700 with 72 arrows, but suffered a 2-6 loss against Indonesia’s Riau Ega Agatha, who is 29th in the world rankings, in the round of 32. Kim, instead, contributed to the South Korean men’s team event gold medal.

Men’s tennis giants Novak Djokovic, world No. 1, and Rafael Nadal, world No. 5, were both stunned by Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro, world No. 141, in the men’s singles.

Del Potro eliminated Djokovic in the first round by 2-0 and romped to a 2-1 victory over Nadal in the semifinals. Del Potro finished his successful outing winning a silver.

Serena Williams, No. 1 in women’s world rankings, also couldn’t make it past the third round after a 0-2 loss against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, world No. 20.