Olympic Wednesday is coming to its natural (albeit temporary) ending, as we take on the “2021” Tokyo Olympics—originally scheduled for 2020 but delayed a year due to the Covid pandemic. Despite the postponement, over 11,300 athletes from 206 nations came to Japan a year late to compete in 339 medal events in 49 disciplines. It served as a somber yet fully embraced recovery from the humanity lost in 2020.

With 113 total medals, the United States topped the table, followed by China (89) and the Russian contingent (71), which was not allowed to compete under the country’s flag due to cheating scandals. Should we count that? We don’t know; either way, Great Britain earned 64 medals, so we will let you decide which nation took third place. With 58 medals overall, the host nation put up an impressive showing for the local fans.

Most Outstanding Male Athlete: Caeleb Dressel, United States

Winner of five medals overall—the most of any male competitior—American swimmer Caeleb Dressel takes our honors here this time. Additionally, all five medals were gold: 50m freestyle, 100m free, 100m butterfly, the 4×100 free relay, and the 4×100 medley relay. He previously won the same two relay golds in Rio. This means through this point, he had nothing but gold medals—seven of them—in his collection.

Most Outstanding Female Athlete: Emma McKeon, Australia

With seven medals in total (four golds, three bronzes), Aussie swimmer Emma McKeon obviously took home the most hardware of any athlete in Tokyo, including our “trophy” here for this honor. Her wins came in the 50m free, the 100m free, the 4×100 medley relay, and the 4×100 free relay. Her third-place finished occurred in the 100m fly, the 4x200m free relay, and the 4×100 mixed medley relay. Quite a showing in all!

Most Outstanding Male Team: Chinese Diving

China’s men’s diving team took a page out of the Chinese women’s divers’ playbook, winning the maximum six medals and coming up one gold short of perfection: Xie Siyi won gold in the springboard event, while Wang Zongyuan took silver; and Cao Yuan earned gold in the platform with Yang Jian getting the silver. The team won the synchronized springboard for another gold before settling for silver in team platform.

Most Outstanding Female Team: Chinese Diving

For the fourth Olympiad in a row, the women divers from China win this award: they did it by winning all four golds and claiming silvers in the individual events, too, for maximum performance. Shi Tingmao won gold in the springboard event, while Wang Han took silver; and Quan Hongchan earned gold in the platform with Chen Yuxi getting the silver. The women obviously took gold in both team events, too. Wow!