The second most important thing in the Olympics, after winning a gold medal? Breaking a world record. Surprisingly, it doesn’t always go hand in hand.
Athletics records are always impressive, helping Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia and Wayne van Niekerk of South Africa stand out. Both Katie Ledecky of the United States and Great Britain’s Adam Peaty broke two world records during their swimming competitions, and the same can be said of Great Britain’s men’s & women’s cycling teams in the team pursuit, breaking the world record twice each on their way to a gold medal.
And the full list of record breakers are:
- Kim Woo-jin of South Korea scored 700 in the men’s individual ranking round, although he didn’t win the individual men’s gold in archery, just the team gold medal
- Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia won the women’s 10,000 meters race, setting a time of 29:17.45
- Wayne van Niekerk of South Africa won the men’s 400 meters race with an astonishing 43.03, breaking Michael Johnson’s 17-year old record
- Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland won the gold medal in the women’s hammer throw, setting a world record of 82.29 meters. She took the silver medal in the event four years ago
- Great Britain set a new world record in the qualifying round of the women’s team pursuit, finishing at a time of 4:13.260
- In the women’s team sprint, the Chinese team set a new world record of 31.928 in the first round
- The Men’s team pursuit team of Great Britain broke the world record twice: First in the first round with 3:50.570, and again in the final, 3:50.265
- The GB women’s team pursuit did the same thing on the way to gold, with 4:12.152 in the first round, and 4:10.236 in the final
- Adam Peaty of Great Britain won the gold medal in the men’s 100 meters breaststroke. He broke the world record in the heats with 57.55, and in the final with 57.13
- Ryan Murphy of the United States won the gold medal in the men’s 100 meters backstroke, swimming a 51.85 in the final of men’s 4×100 medley relay
- Katinka Hosszu of Hungary won three gold medals in Rio. One of them was in the 400 meters IM with 4:26.36
- Australia’s women’s 4×100 freestyle relay team broke the world record en route to gold with 3:30.65 in the final
- Sarah Sjostrom of sweden took silver, bronze and one gold in Rio, also breaking the world record for men’s 200 meters butterfly with 55.48
- Katie Ledecky won four gold medals in Rio, breaking the world record twice. She won gold in the 400 meters freestyle with 3:56.46, and gold in the 800 meters freestyle with 8:04.79, both new world records
- Long Qingquan of China won the gold medal in the men’s 56 kilograms weightlifting. His total of 307 kg is a new world record
- Lü Xiaojun of China won the silver in the men’s 77 kilograms, but set the world record for snatch with 177 kg
- The gold medalist in that event was Nijat Rahimov of Kazakhstan, setting a clean & jerk world record of 214 kilograms
- Kianoush Rostami of Iran won the men’s 85 kilograms category in weightlifting, with his total of 396 kg a new record
- Behdad Salimi of Iran didn’t win a medal in men’s +105 kg event, but set a new world record with 216 kg in the snatch
- Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia won the gold medal in that event, a total of 473 kg giving him gold and the world record
- In the women’s 63 kg for weight lifting, Deng Wei of China set world records in clean & jerk and the total (147/262 kg)