Olympic athletes "show" personalities on social media: playing video games, weaving small bags, testing paper shell beds...

In addition to the superhuman feat of demonstrating power and competing for honor, this year's Olympic athletes offer spectators something equally pleasing: their own personalities, CNN reported on July 28.

Whether on social media or between events, the Tokyo Olympics are full of anecdotes. For example, if watching the U.S. women's football team play is exciting, it's even more exciting to watch them test the much-maligned paper-shell bed in the Tokyo Olympic Village on TikTok. If you see athletes in various sports standing side by side on the podium and your heart beats faster, you're probably not ready to see them laughing and getting close to each other while playing video games together, and you've never seen participants in a common room party as tall and physically strong.

While being an Olympian is an honor in itself, the vast majority of Olympians are not household names. But if you upload a video of yourself stunned by gymnast Simone Byers, as American diver Taylor Downs did, people will start talking about you.

Olympians – they're just like us! It's just that they're faster, stronger, and now they're going to add one — more hilarious.

To be clear, we, the spectators, are very fond of any interesting behind-the-scenes stories that Olympic athletes are willing to show us. Yes, we want to see the Australian team ride a bike together. Yes, we would like to know the daily schedule of Nigerian basketball player Erica Ogumique at the Olympic Village. Yes, we would like to see the small bag hand-knitted by British diver Daly for the medals, one of which is the British flag and the other is the Japanese flag.

The personal stories of Olympic athletes have always been a highlight of the event – otherwise, we might as well watch a marbles race or a video of two robots fighting. Seeing the unprocessed and edited video footage of the athletes, and seeing the "normal" side of their silly and weird spirits refreshed us.

With no spectators at this year's Olympics, this wondrous intimacy sometimes extends all the way to the event site.

Remember the 2012 U.S. gymnast McKay Maroney who became the material for the long-running "unpleasant" memes? Now, as always, the conversations and reactions between those games usually blend in with the noise, fully revealing the personality of the athletes. For example, in between tense competitions, American gymnast Jordan Killis can be heard lamenting that his nails are broken. Beneath the surface of the athletes' perseverance and drama, their lives are so ordinary.

Ironically, these routines highlight the bizarre, even anxious, undercurrents behind the event. After all, a large part of the Japanese public is not in favor of hosting the Olympics this year. Due to problems related to the epidemic, some athletes have had to withdraw from the competition or even fail to participate. When American gymnastics icon Simone Byers pulled out of multiple competitions in the first week of the competition, the heated debate around stress and mental health once again set off a climax. We say we want to know more about olympic stars who become our best remote friends every other year for a few weeks. In fact, we've found it hard to be an Olympian, and many of those reasons have nothing to do with running fast or having a lot of energy.

Despite the political, pandemic and personal challenges, it's still interesting. It is inexplicably comforting to see The Olympians laughing or marveling at each other and their surroundings. Because we ourselves marvel at it.

Source: Reference News Network