The idea of a sibling rivalry that reaches the Olympic podium seems almost ridiculous. The majority of brothers and sisters resolve their differences in the driveway or at the dinner table. It seems that a small number of people require a global audience of billions to solve problems.
The relationship between family dynamics and the Olympics has always been complex. Children are pushed by their coaches. Thru qualifying rounds, twins pursue one another.
Before sunrise, younger sisters are dragged into training gyms by older brothers. The weight of shared history behind each finish line, rather than just the athletic accomplishment, is what makes siblings who competed against one another at the Olympics so captivating.
Uta and Hifumi Abe at the Tokyo Games may have captured this tension better than any siblings. The Japanese judo team made history by being the first brother and sister to win separate gold medals at one Olympics on the same day. Two gold coins.
a single family. It was an almost cinematic afternoon in Tokyo. As it happened, it was difficult not to wonder what their parents thot of it and whether their rivalry had always existed, going all the way back to their early practice mats in a gym that no one outside of Japan would ever know.
Naturally, the Williams sisters are in a class by themselves. Before their relationship started to deteriorate, Venus and Serena attended five Olympics together and won gold in doubles in Sydney, Beijing London.
Sometimes people forget how different their individual paths were, with Venus bearing the burden of paving the way first and Serena eventually surpassing her in the annals of history. The distinction between a rival and a teammate changed based on the bracket as they competed side by side and against one another. Whether that tension improved them or just made things more difficult is still up for debate.
The story of Tom and Emily Ford, the British rowers who trained three times a day, six days a week, out of the Leander Club in Henley-on-Thames, is more subdued. At the Paris Games, Tom took home the gold in the men’s eight. Just minutes before, Emily finished in the women’s eight and won bronze.
She then caught the final ten strokes of her brother’s race from the riverbank. She then said, “I’m immensely proud of what Tom has achieved”, which may seem like a straightforward statement, but it likely contains ten years of shared sacrifice and early mornings. Since British archers William and Lottie Dod in 1908, they were the first brother and sister to win medals at the same Olympics in more than a century.
Then there were the Luik triplets from Estonia, Leila, Liina Lily, who only started training seriously at age 24 and ran the Rio Marathon together. Their declared objectives as the first triplets to compete in the same event in Olympic history were to set personal bests, finish together smile.
They called it #TriotoRio, which, depending on your mood, is either endearing or a little absurd. Completing an Olympic marathon is a remarkable accomplishment. It’s quite another to finish it next to your two identical sisters.
Australia’s Campbells, Cate and Bronte, won gold in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay in Rio; the older sister had called it their childhood dream. In London, the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonny, divided gold and bronze between themselves, turning triathlon into a family rivalry and a family brand at the same time.
No one seemed to be all that shocked. Nathan and Josh Katz, Australian judo brothers, carried on a family tradition their mother had begun in Seoul in 1988 by becoming the first siblings to compete together in their sport at the Olympics.
There is more to these tales than just talent being inherited thru geography or genetics. It’s the unique pressure of being evaluated by someone who is fully aware of your training routine, your shortcomings how you appear when you’re exhausted. Olympic competitors who were siblings did more than just race their rivals. Long before an official starting gun was ever fired, they were actually always competing with one another.