2024-08-28 09:55:33
Bookmaker odds are one way to measure a failure. For favorites, they are always small enough to count. Here are the biggest failures of the Olympics in Paris.
Yui Susaki
(Japan), wrestling
The win was rated at 1.10. Her streak was 94 consecutive victories on the mat in major competitions. And a 2:3 loss to the Indian Vinesh Phogat in the very first match. Still got bronze. And Fogat failed on the scales for the second day of the competition and gave up her place in the final to Yushneidis Guzman (Cuba), who lost 0:3 to the American Sarah Hildebrand.
Utu Abe (Japan),
judo
For many, the odds of 1.20 were a real gift, after she recorded her last loss in November 2019. On the other hand, this one not to win the title was 4.00. And she fell in her first match against the Uzbek Diera Kaldierova. And he didn’t even get a medal in the category up to 52 kilograms.
Tang Qianting
(China), swimming
26 hundredths. They did not reach the top favorite for the 100-meter breaststroke title. At a ratio of 1.33 and for a failure of 3.04. The title was won by the South African Tatiana Smith. A complete outsider for the bookies with odds of 7.00. Qiantin won three medals in Paris, but none of them were gold. She also finished second in the medley relay behind the US quartet, and in the women’s 4x100m medley she finished third behind the US and Australian foursomes.
Song Yingshu (China),
table tennis
Number 1 in the scheme, with 1.35 to win and 2.95 to lose. He reached the final, where he faced second favorite Chen Meng and lost. Her odds were twice that – 3.70. However, Inshu took two gold medals in the team events.
Noah Lyles (USA),
athletics
In the 200-meter run, he had odds of 1.35, and his closest competitor, Kevin Bednarek, was far behind. Lyles won her heat, was second in the semi-final and in the final, hit by the coronavirus before the start, only managed to finish third, 24 hundredths behind winner Letsile Tebogo of Botswana. Tebogo was rated 7.50 before the Olympics. Still, Lyles won the 100 meters and came home with two medals. However, illness took him out of the relay, which was good for him after the Americans failed again in the relay.
USA,
water polo,
women
The American women were a firm favorite at 1.39. They were giving 2.75 for their failure. But in the 1/2-final, they flew away from Australia, which was rated as the sixth power in the tournament. And they were so upset that they also lost the battle for bronze to the Netherlands. Spain won, which was the second favorite with the rather high coefficient of 7.50, and their team included Izabela Piralkova, the daughter of the legendary water polo player Svilen Piralkov.
Jacob
Ingebrigtsen
(Norway),
athletics
At 1500 meters, everyone expected his clash with Josh Kerr and the Norwegian was the top favorite for the title with 1.43. In the end, he failed miserably and finished fourth. Already in the series he gave the 20th time, and in the 1/2-final – seventh. So he failed to defend his title from Tokyo. But at 5000 meters he took the gold.
Ryuju Nagayama
(Japan), Judo
A firm favorite with 1.45, with Luka Mkheidze next in the 60kg category with 4.60. However, the Japanese fell to the Georgian in the 1/4-final, but improved to bronze after two more victories. But it’s hardly the medal he wanted to win.
Italy,
rapier, women
In the team competition, the Italian women were firm favorites with 1.45. After them were the American women with 5.50. It was the American women who won the gold. Second place is not bad, but the Italian women were firm favourites.
Sha’Kari
Richardson (USA),
athletics
1.50 for the 100m title for the American against 4.50 for second favorite Julien Alfred of St Lucia. And Alfred won the island nation’s first ever title by as much as 15 hundredths ahead of Richardson. Still, gold remained for her in the 4 by 100 meter relay.
Romain Dico
(France), judo
The Frenchwoman was the 1.51 favourite, with the bookies giving 4.50 for the title to Israel’s Raz Ershko as second favourite. Diko, however, lost in the 1/2-final to the future champion Beatrice Sousa (Brazil), who was out of the reckoning. In the final, Sousa also dealt with Ershko. For Diko, the bronze and the titles in the team competition for mixed teams from this and the previous Olympics remained.
Clarissa Agbenenu
(France), judo
In the category up to 63 kilograms, she was rated with 1.51, followed by Japan’s Miku Takaiti with 5.00. Takaiti was eliminated in his first match. Agbenenu, on the other hand, reached the 1/2-final, where she lost to the Slovenian Andreja Leshki, who no one expected to fight for the medals, but became the champion after a victory over the Mexican Prishka Aviti Alcaraz. And Clarice was left with bronze. Still, she is a three-time Olympic champion already, having added the title in the mixed team event.
Amir Zare (Iran),
free fight
Everyone saw him as a champion and the bookies gave him 1.55 in the super heavyweights. In the end, he lost in one of the most contested bouts of the games to Georgian Geno Petriashvili. The silver for the Iranian is the second medal after the bronze in Tokyo.
Iga Shviontek
(Poland), tennis
Quite logically, she was the top favorite with 1.57, after the series of victories in the “Grand Slam” tournaments. And she was eliminated in the 1/2-final by the Chinese Qingwen Zhen in a match where the coefficient for her victory was the minimum – 1.10. He then cried for 6 hours but pulled himself together and took the bronze medal.
china shooting
mixed teams
The Asians had as many as two teams in the mixed team 10m pistol. And logically, their title was rated at 1.65. In the end, both teams dropped out of the medal race, finishing fifth and eighth in the qualifiers. And the gold went to Serbia after a victory over Turkey in the final. Both teams had odds of 9.00.
France,
sword, women
1.72 for home title, 4.20 for Hungary. The Hungarian women were eliminated in the 1/4-final, and the French women made it to the four, where they recorded two losses and were left without even a medal. The title was won by the Ukrainian women, who were rated at 8.50, beating the Korean women for the title, who were rated at 10.00.