Olympics corner: Freakout celebrations

Olympics corner: Freakout celebrations
Gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz of the Philippines reacts.
REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

Now that the Tokyo Olympics are finally underway, your Signal crew will be bringing you some intriguing, uplifting, and quirky bits of color from a Games like no other…

Today we've got — the best freakout celebrations!

Winning an Olympic gold is surely an excuse to go nuts. For athletes, it's the ultimate prize for years of rigorous training. For their families, friends, and fellow citizens, it's a once-in-a-lifetime moment of feeling on top of the world — especially in countries where an Olympic gold literally comes once in a lifetime (if ever.)

In just a few days, Tokyo 2020 has already offered a few explosions of joy. Here are four that stood out for us.

  • Classmates of 17-year-old US swimmer Lydia Jacoby cheer her on from a watch party at Jacoby's high school in Alaska.
  • Filipina weightlifter — and air force sergeant — Hidilyn Diaz is proud AF and salutes the flag after winning her country's first-ever gold.
  • Pro-democracy Hong Kong fans drown out the Chinese national anthem after fencer Cheung Ka-long wins the territory's first gold since the 1997 British handover to China.
  • Australian swim coach Dean Boxall goes fully David Lee Roth after Ariarne Titmus wins the 400-m freestyle.
Which one's your favorite? Let us know.

More from GZERO Media

- YouTube

America’s retreat from global aid is leaving a massive funding gap that no other country is stepping in to fill, leaving the world’s poorest to pay the price, warns IRC president & CEO David Miliband on GZERO World with Ian Bremmer.

College graduate unemployment rate.
Eileen Zhang

“Pain and agony and suffering,” wrote Sam Angel, about his job hunt. He recently graduated with a masters in Cold War military history from Columbia University in New York, having decided to go right into a masters program after finishing undergrad.

Protesters line the street outside Alligator Alcatraz in Ochopee, Florida, holding signs during a vigil on Aug. 10, 2025.

60: A federal judge gave the White House and the Florida state government 60 days to shut down “Alligator Alcatraz,” a controversial immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades that has become a symbol of US President Donald Trump’s severe immigration policies.