Misugu Okamoto sat in fourth place going into her third and last run as the last competitor in the final of the women’s park skateboarding event on Aug. 4. Bidding to move up and win a medal, the 15-year-old Japanese executed tricks one after another — until the last one, when she fell on the landing.
彼女は、もう一つ上がってメダルを獲得(move up and win a medal)したいと考えていたでしょう。
15歳の日本人の選手は、次々と(one after another)トリッキーな技を決めていきました(executed tricks)。
でも、最後に着陸に失敗して、地面に落ちてしまいました。
とても、残念な結果です。
Sobbing as she left the course, Okamoto’s competitors came up to her one by one and embraced her in a hug, then gathered to hoist her onto their shoulders. That changed her tearful face into a smile.
彼女がコースを去る時(as she left the course)、彼女は、すすり泣いていました(sobbing)。
その時、他の選手たちが1人ずつ(one by one)彼女に近づき、彼女を抱きしめた。
そして、一緒に彼女を肩に持ち上げた(hoist her onto their shoulders)。
その行動で、彼女は涙顔から笑顔に変わった。
写真がその時のものです。
映像でも見ましたが、とても微笑ましい光景でした。
“It’s magic because I have a medal on my neck, but also because I was able to write history alongside my friends,” Brazil’s Pedro Barros, 26, who won a silver medal in the men’s park skateboarding, was quoted as saying. “It’s all about making the sport a better place and a better world, sharing love and respect.”
In the Olympics, athletes and their supporters alike have a strong tendency to expect medals and settle for nothing less. This leads to “medal supremacists” for whom results are everything.
