Friendship Day 2023: When friendship between athletes took centre stage at the Olympics

Friendship Day 2023: The Olympic Games are not just only about sport – they are also about bringing young athletes from all over the world together, and enabling them to create friendships and memories that will last a lifetime

The Olympic Games are not just only about sport – they are also about bringing young athletes from all over the world together, and enabling them to create friendships and memories that will last a lifetime. 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 them. However, over the years, the Games have often provided us with examples of these values. Be it rivals or teammates, there have been some great moments of friendship on display at the grandest sporting stage of all. On this international friendship day, we take a look at a few of those memories between athletes.

PV Sindhu-Carolina Marin

PV Sindhu has competed against Spain’s Carolina Marin in several memorable matches with the Rio Olympic final standing out. Yet, they have formed a bond that is only growing deeper day by day. On the occasion of Sindhu’s birthday on July 5 years ago, the Olympic Channel had released a video on their social media pages that had the Olympic and two-time world champion Marin talking profusely about her camaraderie with the Indian.

“We are friends and have a very good relationship off the court. But once on the court, we are rivals. The rivalry is always there. Our friendship is constantly growing. Whenever we see each other at tournaments, we greet each other and we are together,” Marin revealed.

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.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty

It was at the 2019 Thailand Open Super 500 event that Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty became the first Indian men’s doubles pair to win a Super 500 title after they beat the then reigning world champions Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen.

The duo, who have been playing together since 2016, then made the final of the French Open Super 750 event and broke into the top 10 in the world - also the first Indian men’s doubles pair ever to do so. Chirag and Satwiksairaj had climbed several places to a career-best ranking of world No. 7 in 2022 and came into 2023 with much promise built over the last few seasons. 

The pair recently won the Korea Open and reached a career-high second spot in the Badminton World Federation rankings.

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Tom Daley-Matt Lee

Daley and Lee both clinched the top honours in the men's synchronized 10m platform diving event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Daley also bagged his maiden World Cup gold with Lee in the same event at the 2021 FINA Diving World Cup.

SV Sunil-PR Sreejesh

The Indian hockey duo share a strong bond on and off the field. Both have been an integral part of the Indian team for years and also competed together at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Michael Jordan-Magic Johnson

The two legends of American basketball showcased a great rivalry in the NBA but always shared a good camarederie off the court. Their friendship blossomed at the 1992 Olympics when they were part of the dream team.

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