Tokyo 2020
Friendship Day: When friendship between athletes took centre stage in Olympics
The Olympics has been privy to many great moments of friendship between athletes
The three core values of the Olympics are excellence, friendship, and respect. With the competition being so fierce and rivalries being so intense it is often very easy to forget about these values. However, over the years the games often provide us with examples of these values. Be it rivals or teammates, there have been some great moments of friendship on sport's biggest stage of all.
On this international friendship day, we take a look at a few of those memories between athletes.
1. P.V. Sindhu and Carolina Marin
Sindhu and Marin competed against each other for the gold medal at the Rio Olympics. The duo has a great relationship off the court as well. Sindhu also sent a message through her social media after she found out that Marin had pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics because of an injury, wishing her a speedy recovery.
2. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty
Satwiksairaj and Chirag have been playing together since 2016. They're also the first Indian men's badminton pair to win a Super Series title.
3. Tom Daley and Matty Lee
Daley and Lee won the gold medal in the Men's synchronized 10m platform diving event at the Tokyo Olympics. Tom Daley also won his first World Cup gold with Matty Lee in the same event at the 2021 FINA Diving World Cup.
4. SV Sunil and PR Sreejesh
The Indian hockey duo share a thick bond off the field. The two have been an integral part of the men's team and also competed together at the Rio Olympics.
5. Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson
The two legends of American basketball shared a great rivalry in the NBA but were always great friends off the court. Their friendship blossomed at the 1992 Olympics when they were part of the dream team.
