Dad-bod, brothers and sisters: My magnificent seven unsung heroes of the Olympics

When the carnival is over, yes, we’ll remember the superstars, the extraordinary performances by the likes of Ariarne Titmus, Simone Biles and LeBron James.

But every bit as important will be the heart-warming stories that don’t necessarily rely on gold medals to warm the cockles of our soul.

Here’s my seven favourite yarns of the Games.

Man with dad bod makes his debut

On the second day of the swimming, American Emma Webber’s swimming cap came off and settled at the bottom of the pool, and she was long gone. Someone has to get it. Who was he? No-one knows.

A nameless, middle-aged lifeguard. He strips down and displays something new at this pool – a normal, lovely, DAD BOD. The mob doesn’t know what is going on, only that there’s a bloke there in what looks like his multicoloured undies about to swim in the Pool of the Gods. The stadium erupts with whistles. He dives in, gets the white cap, and emerges triumphant as the stadium explodes.

These Olympics are for everyone – even those with dad bods! No, but who is he? This champion offers a quick smile and acknowledging wave to the crowd before walking off into history but declines to give his name, not wanting to take attention from the athletes. But half the world knows him anyway. He is dad bod. I am dad bod. You are dad bod. We are dad bod.

He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother

Growing up on the Gold Coast, Saya and Kai Sakakibara had a dream: to go to the Olympics and win gold for Australia as BMX racers. Alas, in 2020, Kai crashed badly during a BMX race and so severely injured his brain that it was feared he would never walk or talk again.

Saya and the rest of the family have strongly supported him since, as he continues his slow recovery, but it is at his insistence she continues to pursue the dream for both of them. She went to Tokyo and crashed so badly herself that she finished in hospital.

The following year, another crash so bad she was close to giving up. But . . . Kai. Their dream. She kept going. Got selected for Paris. Tested positive for COVID three days from the competition. Kept going.

And ... won. Gold! Gold! Gold for Australia, and Kai – who was in the stands with the rest of her family, all crying as the gold medal was put around her neck.

“I’m more happy for her than I am for me right now,” Kai said afterwards, “because she’s been through a lot of things and was so, so close to giving up a few years ago. Now she’s an Olympic champion, so it’s crazy.”

Liberté, Égalité, Sororité

In the preliminary heats of the women’s 100m sprint, Laotian sprinter Silina Pha Aphay was aware, half-way down the track, that one of her fellow competitors had crashed down to her right. So, after crossing the line, she dashed to South Sudanese sprinter Lucia Moris, who was in severe pain and got there well before the medical staff, who she was waving at to come quickly.

The Laotian stayed with the South Sudanese woman while they attended to her before carrying her off on a stretcher.

“We are athletes,” Pha Aphay told The Washington Post. “We are 100 metres – the same. All 100-metre athletes have to know how being hurt feels. And this is a big competition. It’s a big dream to come here. But you get hurt here. So everybody knows the feeling. I can only share her pain.”

The sister also rises

I know the story, you know the story. How good! After years of being Jess Fox’s sister, from now on, Noemie Fox is an Olympic gold medallist!

Olympic grandma

They call Zeng Zhiying the “table tennis grandma”. See, if these Olympics can have 11-year-old skateboarders, why not 58 year-olds handy with a paddle? Forty years ago, Zhiying just missed out on being selected to represent China in Los Angeles 1984. So, the hell with it. She moved to Chile, married, raised children and … and what was that thing she used to do? Oh yeah, table tennis. So here she was, representing Chile. Sure, she lost in the preliminary round, but so what?

“I don’t feel very sad, because this is sport,” she said. “My husband, my sons, everyone I love and care about were there shouting my name. I feel so content. Even when I was a little girl and they would ask me what my dream was, I would say: ‘Become an Olympian’.”

Her 92-year-old dad is still alive and was watching from China.

One for the girls

Quite rightly, the IOC has barred Taliban officials from attending these Games but has accepted what is effectively an Afghan team in exile, consisting of three men and three women, none of whom can return to their homeland.

Kimia Yousofi is one of them, and has been training in Australia since 2022. This week, she came last in her 100m heat, but no matter. She spoke up for Afghan women against the Taliban.

“I am fighting for a land where the terrorists came,” she told the press. “If they get into your house, you say, ‘OK, get out, this is my house’. What should I feel? They took my land. No one in Afghanistan recognises them as the government. No one. They cannot talk. I can talk.”

Go on, Ms Yousofi.

“I have a message for Afghan girls. Don’t give up, don’t let others decide for you. Just search for opportunity and then use that opportunity. I just want to represent Afghan people with this flag, our culture. Our girls in Afghanistan, our women, they want basic rights, education and sport.” Bravo!

One for the lads

Respectfully, up until this week, the two 36-year-old Australian tennis players Matthew Ebden and John Peers were more anonymous than wrong numbers to most of the Australian sporting public. But earlier this year, they came up with a plan. Instead of shuffling off into retirement, why not pair up and give the Olympics a go? Why not, indeed? In the form of their lives, they won the gold medal!

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