Rio 2016: an alternative guide

By William Skidelsky

After a build-up that’s been unedifying even by the low standards set by its predecessors, the 29th Olympics are about to begin. Over the next 19 days, 11,246 athletes will compete in 42 sports for a total of 306 gold medals. The glory of the Olympics – and the one thing, really, that justifies the colossal extravagance of staging them – is that the excitements they offer are so delightfully unpredictable. How can it be otherwise, when so many (mostly obscure) athletes are competing in so many (mostly obscure) sports? While this makes reading the Olympic runes a challenging task, here are some predictions – for the casual fan – as to the athletes and events that will prove unexpectedly captivating.

Women’s sprinting
Everyone knows that Usain Bolt will be attempting a third gold in the 100m at Rio, but the women’s sprint events are arguably even more mouth-watering. This is largely because of the improbable rise of Holland’s Dafne Schippers, who, over the last two years, has transformed herself from a mediocre heptathlete (she finished 11th in the event in 2012) into a world-beating sprinter. At last year’s World Athletic Championships, she ran the third quickest 200m ever; she’s the fastest this year at both 100m and 200m. Aside from prompting some to question her cleanness, her rise has blown apart the supremacy long enjoyed by black Jamaican and American athletes in sprinting. Can she beat the legendary Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (who, like Bolt, is attempting a third consecutive gold) in the 100m?