Hello out there!! Are you watching the Summer Olympics these days? There are many exciting events happening. Japan is doing very well. As I write this on Friday evening (July 30th), China has the most gold medals with 18. But Japan is second with 17 gold medals!!! Of course there are a lot more Chinese athletes than there are Japanese athletes, so I think most people here are probably quite happy with the results up until now. Do you recognize the two girls below??
The one on the left is Momiji Nishiya. She won a gold medal in skateboarding a few days ago, and she is only 13 years old! The one on the right is Funa Nakayama. She got a bronze medal in the same event, and she's just 16. We have students at Starry who are the same age or older than these 2 medal winners!! Many amazing things are being achieved by young people at the Olympics so far.
My country, Canada, only has 3 gold medals so far. The photo above shows the Canadian women's rowing team that won a gold medal earlier today. Canada is usually good at rowing. But winter sports are Canada's main strength! I expect Canadians will do somewhat better in the Winter Olympics next year, because there are a lot of sports like ice hockey or curling at that event. Canada often does well in snowy and icy conditions. Winters are very cold where I come from!!
Not all the news at the Olympics is good, though. The famous tennis player Naomi Osaka (shown here) was chosen by Japan to light the Olympic torch, and unfortunately she lost her tennis match a couple days ago. She won't be able to win any medals at the Olympics this year. She said she is very disappointed. Also, the coronavirus cases have been going up a lot in Tokyo and all throughout Japan recently. Some people think the Olympics should have been cancelled because of the covid-19 situation. But I think it's still nice to cheer for our country during the Olympics, and this takes our mind off the bad things that are happening here or around the world due to the corona pandemic. Anyway, I hope you are enjoying the events so far. Go Japan!!!!!
- Peter 
