Very few major events happen once during every high school career presidential election, FIFA world cup, and most recently the summer Olympics.

The Olympics is when all the world’s countries send out the best athletes the country can muster for each event, all in the hopes of being the country with the most gold medals in the end and this year the US had the honor of bringing home the most golds with 39 in total. Edging out China on the final day.

The US also came home with an impressive 113 total medals in total including 41 silver and 33 bronze as well as the 39 gold.

“I had been watching the medals the whole time so I was pretty curious when they put totalsmedals as well as the other stats online,” Senior Ibrahim Al Janabi said.

This year the Olympics introduced several new events most notably Skateboarding and surfing.

Both sports have commandeered fans in the recent years, even going as far as to have their own world championships and organizations to regulate the popular sports.

Skateboarding has long been associated with the rebellious teen stereotype, but this last-minute inclusion to the Olympics was vital in helping sports to really establish themselves as legitimate for athletes and not just casual hobbyists.

The main reason for this is that it is difficult to see something as a hobby when those in the Olympic committee are perhaps the most qualified to make such decisions.

“I had always thought skateboarding was a cool skill to have, now it’s like a cool skill that I can get paid for or even go to the Olympics,” Senior Mathew Chavez said.

When it comes to the Olympics very few people know every event that will be conducted over the 16-day period some of which will not be familiar to those watching.

Included in these odd sports are the relatively more familiar 3000-meter steeple chase a long distance runs with low walls to jump over mid race or walking which is just no obstacles no running race.

On the more unfamiliar side are events such as the modern pentathlon a mixed bag of events with fencing, swimming, equestrian dressage, with the final event a mix of cross country running and pistol shooting.

“I had no idea what half these sports were when they popped onto the screen,” Senior Ilan Benn said. “Least of all the modern pentathlon where I got more and more confused as the events moved on.”