Olympic firsts during Rio 2016

The history of the Olympic games goes back to the start of the Modern Olympics over a century ago in 1896. If you want to be a real Olympic purist, Olympic history began in 776 BC and ended in 393 AD. That is over 1000 years of achievements, accolades and glory.

With so many years of competition in the books, firsts are rare to come by. Kind of.

Despite centuries of competition, the Rio Games were the site of many firsts in Olympics. The games themselves were the first Olympics held in the South America in the competition’s long history.

That isn’t the first break from tradition that these games have seen. For the first time, flowers were not given to medal winners. Instead, they were given a little model of the Rio Olympic Logo for a more sustainable souvenir.

All of the athletes participating in Rio have reached one goal or another getting there, but only few will be remembered for eternity for being the first to achieve something that had never been achieved before by a fellow countrymen or Olympic competitor.

Here are some of the firsts of the Rio Games:

• Vietnam’s first gold – Xuan Vinh Hoang 10-meter air pistol

• Kosovo’s first medal – Majlinda Kelmendi, gold in judo

• Fiji’s first medal – gold rugby

• First swimmer to win four consecutive individual events: Michael Phelps, 200-meter individual medley

• First track athlete to win 100-meter sprint three times: Usain Bolt

• First track athlete to win 200-meter sprint three times: Usain Bolt

• First gold competing under the Olympic flag – Fehaid Al-Deehani gold men’s trap shooting

• First African-American woman swimmer to win an individual medal – Simone Manuel 100-meter freestyle

• First U.S. athlete to compete with a Hijab – Ibtihaj Muhammad, Fencing

• First U.S. Gold in Triathlon – Gwen Jorgensen

• First sweep of women’s 100-meter hurdles: USA

• First hole in one in Olympic golf history: Justin Rose Great Britain

• First Summer Olympian to win individual medal in six consecutive Olympics – Kim Rhode

• First Olympian to win on five different continents – Kim Rhode

• First Shootout Women’s Olympic Soccer – USA vs. Sweden

• First Olympics in South America

• First Olympics without flower bouquets

• First soccer gold for Brazil

• First Refugee Team

• South Sudan First Olympics

• Kosovo First Olympics

• First time American women didn’t medal in soccer