I think age is beginning to set in for me… I had trouble getting through this Olympics like none before. I just found myself feeling impatient about the competitions. Then again, I can just Blame it on Rio…

I wasn’t excited when I heard the Olympics would be in Rio. Having covered South America as a reporter, I’ve seen too many things one can’t unsee and generally oppose all things South America. And considering all of the problems that were being pointed out about Rio – Polluted water, rampant crime, Zika – I feel justified.

I went back and read what I wrote about London 2012 and it was vastly different in feeling to what I have to say about Rio 2016. But, I did point out some people to watch and several of them didn’t disappoint…

BUT, I will repeat that I won’t be writing about Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt or adding Simone Biles to the list. My colleagues have written and continue to write so much about them, I don’t need to. Onward…

Because I was so ambivalent about Rio and because there was such a dark cloud over Rio even before the games began, I don’t want to rehash any of that; I also don’t want to do a review of the events like I did with London. Instead, I want to talk about what I consider the best moments of Rio 2016…

Moment #1: Ryan Held – Swimmer – NC State. He swam the 4x100m Freestyle relay with Caeleb Dressel, Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian. They won gold. He got on the medal stand… the national anthem began to play and he broke down in tears like a baby. Now, I’ve seen people cry on the medal stand before, but, he just lost it. It really stood out to me.

My tweets began with suggesting Nathan Adrian looked like he was gonna throw up before the race began to cheering for Heldilox – his twiiter name – for ball his effing eyes out because he had just won a gold medal! Very humbling. My favorite moment of the entire Olympics.

Moment #2: Simone Manuel – Swimmer – Stanford. She won gold in the 100m Freestyle. She had no idea and was visibly shocked when she saw it. More importantly, it was historic. First black woman to win individual olympic in swimming EVER.

Now some people have said the win should be about her being a swimmer, not a black swimmer. I think it has to be about being a black swimmer because of the deficient numbers of color in the sport period. Maybe now little black girls and little Latinas and little asian girls everywhere will decide to take up swimming in the hopes of getting to the Olympics too.

But, I took the opportunity to tweet that the stereotype that black people can’t swim is officially deceased… Thank you Simone…

Moment #3: Anthony Ervin – Swimmer – 35 years old! This was awesome because, he won gold in the splash and dash/50 meter freestyle in Sydney 2000 at the age of 19, then auctioned off his gold medal for charity. 17 years later, he comes back to win gold in the same event. This proves that success can defy age…

And in an event that looks like a bomb blew up in the pool. Once the swimmers hit the water, all you can see is splashing. I joked that it’s so furious, they must be heating up the pool like its a hot tub… Most def my fave swimming event.

Moment #4: Tom Daley – Diver – Team Great Britain. His third Olympic games. Hugely popular in the UK. Started in Beijing at age 14 followed by London at age 18 where he won Bronze in Platform. This was a bittersweet moment for me…

Tom Daley is one of the people I said to watch after London. Now he’s 22. He went into the semi-finals in Rio in first place. He was diving beautifully. I was convinced he was taking home the gold. Then he just lost his focus in the semi’s and didn’t even qualify for the finals. Not sure what happened, but, it was sad. Especially when you consider the field for platform was not that great.

But, I know we’ll see him in Tokyo and I hope he gets the gold…

Moment #5: Matthew Centrowitz – Distance Runner – Oregon. He won gold in the 1500 meters. This is significant because the last American to win gold in this event was in 1908 – 108 years ago! But what really makes this moment for me is that his father was a distance runner at Oregon in the late 70’s and on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team. The two of them are a comedy act together. Hilarious.

And when the son won the gold in Rio, the reaction of his father and his family was by far the most memorable. They were all over each other. And when Matt Jr. found them in the crowd, he reported that the first thing his father said to him was, “Are you F***IN’ kidding me!” Love it. Now that’s the real deal…

Matt Jr. also has a tattoo across his chest reading, LIKE FATHER LIKE SON. The deal he made with this father is that if he won gold in Rio, Matt Sr. would get the same. After he won, he tried to let him off the hook, but, Matt Sr. said he would keep his word – not committing to the same location for the tattoo, but, he would make good on the deal.

These two were truly entertaining and made history in between…

Moment #6: Wayde Van Niekerk – Sprinter – South Africa. Won gold in the 400. This was so significant because he did it from the outside lane AND set a world record! For runners, this is huge. Lane placement is a big deal because the inside lane and the outside lane take a lot of work. The curve is more steep on the inside lane and the distance is longer on the outside lane. He beat the previous WR by 15 seconds. WTF. I was struck by the comments from runners about this win. They were all kinda amazed because it was a world record, FROM THE OUTSIDE LANE!!!

Shockers: In Tennis, both #1 Novak Djokovic and #3 Rafael Nadal were knocked out of competition early by #145 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina. #1 Serena Williams was knocked out in the third round by #20 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and also knocked out of the doubles medal run with her sister in the first round.

In Gymnastics, Team USA women dominated the events while Team USA men had trouble completing flawless events. This was actually my overall impression of the gymnastics events – it was an overall show of flaws and bobbles and events missing clean routines. The only two standouts in gymnastics for me were Simone Biles and Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine.

Of Course, Simone Biles won all-around gold, but, Oleg ended up with all-around silver by a fraction of a point to China. His form was excellent; His Chinese opponent’s was not. He was robbed…

So now we’re headed to Tokyo 2020. The handover from Rio to Tokyo was nice and I’m looking forward to what Japan has to offer. Rio’s opening and closing events were nice – not too overdone and not underwhelming. It was a nice open and shut to all of the other things happening in the middle, like the water in the diving and competition pools turning green because they used the wrong chemicals or the mishap with spectators attempting to get into the park in the first few days.

Rio did their best and kudos the them for the effort. See you in Tokyo…