"Since I was 20, I've had to deal with tough men who have high-profile roles," said the new president of the International Olympic Committee a few days ago. Kirsty CoventryThe former Olympic swimmer, the first woman to hold this position when she takes over this July after win the elections a few weeks ago, has already understood that her first years in office will be determined by one name: Donald Trump. The next Summer Olympics are scheduled to take place in 2028 in Los Angeles with Trump in the White House, and some states are threatening a diplomatic boycott of the event if the US president continues his misbehavior. "Communication with Trump will be key," says Coventry.

A bid for the 2030 or 2034 Winter Olympics? Until now, all the parties, especially the Generalitat, the Aragonese government and the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), were working with the goal of hosting the 2030 Winter Olympics, but Aragon's reluctance – which has already led the Catalan government to postpone the consultation on the bid – has caused delays, to the point that this Friday the COE has opened the door for the first time to presenting a candidacy for the 2034 Winter Olympics instead. COE president Alejandro Blanco also warned that if a "presentable" project is not achieved before April or May 2023, when the call ends, the candidacy will have to wait until the next Olympics. The Catalan Government's response has been immediate and Presidency councillor Laura Vilagrà has affirmed that they do not consider "any other scenario" than 2030: "We can make it", she said. All this happened two days after the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, visited Madrid

A year later than expected, with the stands empty and demonstrators protesting at the gates of the stadiums, the Tokyo Olympics are now a thing of the past. The athletes who have been national heroes will gradually be reduced to statistics, the champions of sports that are not usually followed will return to compete without making much media noise and the Japanese will be able to breathe. They have pulled off this poisoned gift well. It was meant to be the Games of the renaissance of the Olympic movement, but the coronavirus has made it a toothache. Never before have the Games cost so much to organise. A whole year late, in fact.

Twenty-one years after their last Olympic final, the Spanish national football team have once again come up short. The young generation of Spanish footballers, led this time by Pedri, who played his 73rd game of the season and his 11th extra time, will return from Japan with a silver medal. The gold medal still goes to Brazil, who defended the most precious Olympic metal that Neymar and Co. had won at Rio 2016, and which Dani Alves, the player with the most titles in history, can now also wear: 45. Barcelona 1992 will continue as the greatest triumph in a Games for the Olympic state team after losing in extra time against the Brazilian team with a goal from ex-Barcelona's Malcom (2-1).

Years go by and the lighting of the Barcelona 1992 cauldron is still unsurpassed. The arrow of Antonio Rebollo crossing the sky became one of the most remembered images in the history of the Olympic movement. The idea of having a cauldron with an Olympic flame, however, was not born in 1896. It was not until Amsterdam 1928 when adding solemnity to the Games was decided, more and more consolidated every day, with this idea that intended to remember when Prometheus stole the fire from the gods of Olympus. It was a way of continuing to link Olympism with ancient Greece. The idea was nice, but in 1928 they considered that just having the flame was enough. So it was lit by a worker of the Dutch gas company.

Without Usain Bolt, the Jamaicans have elegantly stepped aside from the 100m final. As if after Bolt's three consecutive gold medals, the Caribbean accepted that they had to share the joy. What they probably did not expect was that the new champion would be a European, the Italian Lamont Marcell Jacobs. The first athlete from the old continent to win the 100 meters in decades, since the last one to do so was the British Linford Christie in 1992.

Although in a football match it is important to get off to a good start, the most important thing is how you finish.  The Spanish Olympic team has started losing against Ivory Coast and in less than ten minutes they have also lost Òscar Mingueza. The blaugrana footballer, who was returning to play after contracting a femoral biceps in the first match of the Games, suffered from his injury at the very beginning and the Madrid player Vallejo, who is more of a centre-back than a winger, substituted him on the right wing. But despite losing a player to injury so early on and conceding a goal after just ten minutes, the state side rallied to draw level in a match that still had a crazy twist in store. In the 90th minute the Africans went ahead again, but not a minute later, with the first ball touched by Rafa Mir, Spain drew level again in a match that was decided in extra time with a penalty goal from Mikel Oyarzabal and two more goals from Mir (5-2). They will now meet the winner of the match between hosts Japan and New Zealand in the semi-finals.

When you don't win by KO, boxing enters grey territory. Where a non-expert eye sees the victory of the one who has moved his arms more, the judges can see the victory of the one who has moved less. Often, even boxing experts can't agree on who won in close fights. And Emmanuel Reyes Pla felt the judges had robbed him of his Olympic medal. The Cuban fighter with a Spanish passport, outraged after losing on points in the heavyweight quarter-final, did not hold back: "They have taken it to a political level, it's not fair. I was better. Only God can judge me".

"Women do better in sports, because the progression is better". It's that clear. For Jaume Nualart, this conclusion is clear after carrying out a study on the evolution of world records in athletics. "If we look at the progression, in most disciplines women have lowered their records more than men. Sometimes even twice as much", analyses Nualart, PhD, researcher and teacher. Despite entering the Olympic world much later, women have managed to improve their records dramatically. They have practically cut twice as many seconds off the stopwatch in half the time. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where athletics has just begun, the marks are trembling before the great athletes, both men and women, who have their sights set on setting a new milestone.

On 21 December 2016, Anna Kiesenhofer defended her doctoral thesis for her PhD in applied mathematics at the UPC. The Austrian had already been in Catalonia for a few years, where it was common to see her riding her bike on the roads of Empordà and Maresme. Five years later, Kiesenhofer has won the gold medal in road cycling, surprising everyone. Especially the Dutch Annemiek Van Vleuten, one of the favourites. The Movistar rider had led the attacks of the big group to neutralise some riders who had been escaping all day. One after the other, they have caught up with them. And as Van Vleuten crossed the finish line, she celebrated the gold medal, not realising that she actually had a silver medal. In a corner of the asphalt of the circuit where the race ended was Kiesenhofer, with no air in her lungs, recovering. She was the champion.

The best pictures of the Olympic day on 24 July

The world is not in a celebratory mood, but the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Tokyo has served to send a message of optimism. The event, which has remembered with restrained emotion the victims who have lost their lives because of covid-19, has used the strength of sport to send a cry of hope and strength to fight against adversity.