- The Tokyo Games were originally scheduled
for the summer of 2020 and the global pandemic
postponed everything by a full year.
And what that meant for athletes was they had a whole extra year
to both train and prepare, but also to worry.
And so that might've hindered some of the older athletes,
it certainly gave a lot of young people an extra year
to get ready to mature to grow
and to prepare for these Tokyo Games.
At the Olympic Gymnastic competition,
all eyes were definitely on Simone Biles.
But the US Team actually has a pair of other gymnasts
who are making a lot of noise in Tokyo.
Sunisa Lee is only 18 years old
and has already emerged as one of Team USA's top
All-Around gymnasts, having won three medals
at the World Championships in 2019.
The uneven bars is her can't-miss event.
That's where Lee strings together
one of the most difficult routines we've seen,
with tons of perilous release elements.
Lee will see plenty of competition for the podium
from Jordan Chiles, her American teammate.
Chiles is 20 now and Tokyo marks the end of a long journey.
Just a few years ago she had questioned
whether or not she wanted to even continue in the sport.
Simone Biles convinced her to relocate to Texas
and start training with Biles there.
And since then her performances and her scores have skyrocketed.
This year especially, she's been wildly consistent.
Since February, she's hit 24 straight routines,
without a major mistake.
Something even her pal Simone can't say.
There is a lot of new talent in Track & Field this year.
Five years ago Noah Lyes just missed
out on making the US Olympic Team
that went to Rio de Janeiro.
In the years since then, he's matured,
he's gotten faster, and he's established himself
as the fastest 200 Meter runner on the planet.
In Tokyo, he's going to try and become the first man
not named Usain Bolt to win that race since 2004.
Perhaps Lyes biggest competition in Tokyo is going to come
from the man who finished second to him at the US Trials.
That runner's name is Arian Knighton.
He's just a 17-year-old runner from Tampa.
It's not often that someone raced one of Usain
Bolt's records, but that's exactly
what Knighton did at the Track Trials.
Racing in the semifinals in the 200,
Knighton posted a time of 19.
88 seconds, breaking Bolt's Under-20 World Record
that has stood for 17 years.
In the Women's 200, all eyes are going to be on Gabby Thomas.
She graduated from Harvard with a major in Neurobiology.
She's now working toward a Master's degree
in epidemiology at the University of Texas.
She ran the 200 meters in 21.
61 seconds.
The second fastest time ever.
One up-and-comer that we won't see in Tokyo
is Sha'Carri Richardson.
Richardson was poised to be a breakout star at these Olympics
when she won the 100 Meter Dash at the US Track Trials in June.
Shortly after winning her race,
she tested positive for marijuana.
Marijuana's a banned substance
so it also earned her a 30 day suspension.
That suspension expires before the relay
competition at these Olympics,
but the US Track & Field officials
decided not to include her in the relay pool.
Richardson's only 21 so it stands to reason
we'll see her at an Olympics down the road.
The Tokyo Games will usher in a new generation of swimmers.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic
postponed the Tokyo Games a full year,
Torri Huske might've been on the outside looking in.
But she used that extra year to get stronger
and to get faster in the pool.
In the 100 Meter Butterfly Huske
set an American Record in semifinals
and then somehow went even faster in the finals.
Her time of 55.
66 seconds is the fastest in the world this year
and the third fastest of all time.
Regan Smith was only 17 years old
when she made a huge splash at the 2019 World Championships.
First she broke Missy Franklin's World Record
in the 200 Meter Backstroke,
she wasn't even qualified to race the 100,
but she was put on the Medley Relay Team,
where she promptly broke the World Record
in the 100 Meter Backstroke, too.
Smith is now 19 and she'll compete
in the 100 Meter Backstroke, the 200 Meter Butterfly,
and likely at least one relay race in Tokyo.
These Tokyo Games will mark the debut of some new sports
on the Olympic Platform.
Including Surfing and Skateboard.
Growing up in Florida, Caroline Marks
loved riding horses and competing in barrel racing.
But she prefers riding inside a barrel these days.
A cascading tunnel of ocean water, that is.
As Marks has emerged as one of the best female
surfers on the planet.
She was only 16 years old when she joined the pro tour
and 17 when she won her first event.
marks is still only 19,
and many think she'll be the face of Women's Surfing
for years to come.
Skateboarding will also be making its Olympic debut,
and Brighton Zeuner will be the one
who helps introduce the sport to the world.
The California native was only 11 years old
when she made her X Games debut,
and she was just 13 when she won her first X Games title.
Zeuner will be a favorite to reach
the medals podium in Tokyo.
On the men's side, Heimana Reynolds grew up in Hawaii,
which means he grew up chasing big waves on a surfboard.
But he slowly gravitated toward a board with wheels.
And he's emerged as one of the most exciting skateboarders
on the planet.