Strange episode for West African country, Togo, at the Olympics.
One of their competitors, whom many Togolese did not know because he resided in France and had only visited his home country once, won Togo's first Olympic medal!
Boukpeti, 27, who chose to compete for Togo in Beijing when it became clear he was too old for France, said he now had a “very good reason” to visit the African nation after stunning the field and spectators at the Olympics.
Yeah, always a good freebie to realize someone is competing for your country of whom you've never heard of and they win a medal!
On the other side of the spectrum, we have Phelps, one of the most widely-known Olympic competitors. As you may know, the record for most gold medals won by a single competitor is 9. 5 people, now including Phelps, have attained this prestigious accomplishment: Swimmer Mark Spitz, runner Carl Lewis, Soviet gymnast Larysa Latynina, and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi. After winning the 200m freestyle for his 3rd gold this Olympics, Phelps joins the ranks and upon winning one more gold will set the record for 10 gold Olympics held be a single competitor, making him "the most cumulatively decorated Olympic gold medalist ever" (yes I thought up that title, myself, in case you were wondering).
Wow, "olympic monopoly" should become a new high-achieving competitor phrase! And if one measures Olympic prowess in gold, winning one more gold would make Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian ever. What a title!
True, Mark Spitz still holds the record for 7 gold in a single Olympics, so cumulative Olympic gold in a career versus at a single Olympics are different criteria, but either way, that's a tremendous amount of achievement.
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