Wikipedia:Top 25 Report/July 25 to 31, 2021

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Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (July 25 to 31, 2021)[edit]

Prepared with commentary by SSSB, Mcrsftdog, Igordebraga

⭠ Last week's report

The goddamned pandemic delayed the 2020 Olympics for a year, and once the Games started they have really caught the attention of Wikipedia viewers, as only seven entries below haven't been pushed by the events in Tokyo.

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 2020 Summer Olympics 3,775,926 Sports fans of the New World (and maybe a few of the Old one as well) are currently sleep-deprived to fit into the Tokyo Standard Time where the biggest multi-sport event is happening. The pandemic that delayed the Olympics is still having its effects felt, with medalists forced to wear masks on the podium and such.
2 Simone Biles 2,654,995 Simone Biles, the most successful American gymnast of all time, withdrew mid-way through the Women's artistic team all-around citing mental health problems. She also withdrew from individual contests, opening the way for compatriot Sunisa Lee and Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, among others, to win it all. Certainly not the way all the media who claimed she'd be the name of the Olympics expected things to go.
3 Katie Ledecky 1,444,410 Ledecky won her sixth individual Olympic gold medal this week—the most of any female American swimmer, and the third most of any American period, after Carl Lewis and...
4 Michael Phelps 1,376,312 The most successful Olympian of all time is retired now, but people are still keen to remind themselves of his records.
5 Sunisa Lee 1,362,132 In #2's absence, the all-around individual gymnastics competition was won by this teammate of hers, who also got the bronze in the uneven bars. No picture on Commons, however, so here's silver medalist Rebeca Andrade, who also got the gold in the vault.
6 Tom Daley 1,256,729 This British diver made his Olympics debut at Beijing 2008, aged 14. He became World Champion for the first time in 2009 in the 10m platform. He is a three-time World Champion, 5-time European Champion and four-time Commonwealth Champion (across two displines). Yet, he didn't become Olympic Champion until 2021. When he did, this picture (the first one) even promoted an emotional reaction from me.
7 Joey Jordison 1,219,852 A break from sports to go tragic: Jordison, founding drummer of metal band Slipknot, passed away on Monday at just 46.
8 India at the 2020 Summer Olympics 1,086,402 In contrast to neighbor China, India's massive population didn't translate into a nation dominating on sports. Hence in one week of #1, only one medal came, a silver by weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (pictured). It is India's 29th overall Olympic medal - for comparison's sake, that's only one more than China's worst performance in a single edition.
9 Caeleb Dressel 979,812 To the despair of people who want non-American swimmers to win for a change, this guy (who already got 2 relay golds in 2016) appeared at #1 like a second coming of #4, winning five races.
10 2020 Summer Olympics medal table 918,449 Who is the most successful country at these games? If gold medals are the standard, it's China. If overall medals is the way, it's the United States. (you might notice US media always shifts standards when the country lags behind...) In other news, San Marino and Turkmenistan got their first medals of any colour and Bermuda and the Philippines take their first golds. Bermuda and San Marino are the smallest countries to achieve those respective accomplishments (in terms of population).
11 Dusty Hill 918,056 The longtime bassist/singer of ZZ Top passed away early this week at the age of 72.
12 Deaths in 2021 780,381 And I tread a troubled track
My odds are stacked
I'll go back to black...
13 Old (film) 774,653 M. Night Shyamalan adapts a French comic about a beach that hastens aging. As expected, many jokes have been made.
14 Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics 678,406 All the entries in the top 10 show how swimmers are still a big draw (or, at least, it's one area the USA has decided to wring medals out of and most Wikipedia readers are from that country... though this year welcomes the UK Great Britain's record swimming medals, as well). And while the Americans winning most races (11) was expected, Australia also went strong with nine, all but one won by women - the most decorated being Emma McKeon, who leaves Tokyo with 4 golds and 3 bronzes.
15 Hmong people 652,916 Gran Torino introduced many people to this ethnic group hailing from Southeast Asia (pictured is Toad Thao from that movie). Those who didn't know probably now met the Hmong through #5.
16 Naomi Osaka 671,083 Remember what we said about the tennis player who lit the Olympic cauldron hoping to also ignite her tournament? Well, Osaka only lasted three rounds, defeated by Markéta Vondroušová, who is a whole 90 spots behind her in the WTA rankings! (the other hyped player, Novak Djokovic, got farther, but still finished in fourth place, and decided to not contest the mixed doubles bronze, preventing partner Nina Stojanović from getting her day in the sun.)
17 The Suicide Squad (film) 663,069 One year after Birds of Prey, comes step two of Warner Bros. trying to redeem themselves from Suicide Squad, as the criminals sent on high risk black ops missions got an independent sequel (no matter if four actors are brought back, including Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn) helmed by James Gunn. Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, which speaks great things for when The Suicide Squad hits North American theaters (and HBO Max) next week.
18 P. V. Sindhu 638,454 One of India's hopes to add something to #8 was this badminton player, already winner of a silver in 2016 (and who indeed got a bronze in #1, but the day after this report's cut-off date).
19 List of Olympic Games host cities 626,983 The next one is still in an unfavorable time zone, as the 2022 Winter Olympics are in Beijing. Even if the Chinese capital doesn't even have snow. Go figure.
20 All-time Olympic Games medal table 625,541 Which nation is the most successful of all time. Summer? United States (by a long way) Winter? Norway. Anyway, to avoid confusion, this article will only be updated after the conclusion of #1. So, you will have to wait to see how these games (whose medal table is #10) affect the overall standings.
21 Badminton at the 2020 Summer Olympics 608,898 YouTube was actually in this spot, but let's put something we can explain the inclusion, shall we? And it is India's second most popular sport,(which is also the reason why it earned more views than the list's first cut-offs, the world's most popular and the racket sport with a ball instead of a shuttlecock) that has earned medals for our South Asian for three straight Olympics, the last two from #18.
22 Olympic Games 600,982 How high can I jump
How high can I throw
How high can I run
How long can I hold my breath and stay underwater and wave my legs around in perfect unison with my partner who really doesn't understand me
Or my Olympic dream...
23 Elena Mukhina 579,976 #2 deciding to leave the gymnastics competitions brought to discussion that performing such an acrobatic sport outside optimal conditions is risky, as shown by this late Soviet gymnast: during a practice two weeks before the 1980 Summer Olympics, she crash-landed on her chin and got quadriplegic.
24 ZZ Top 575,452 A bearded Texan rock trio - including a guy actually named Beard, who after decades with only a mustache grew a goatee - who ever since 1969 have been responsible for many classic tunes such as "La Grange" and "Sharp Dressed Man" (and for Back to the Future fans, "Doubleback"). One of their frontmen died (#11) 5 days after the band played without him for the first time in 51 years - the other leader, Billy Gibbons, said Hill specifically asked him to put his guitar tech in his place.
25 India at the Olympics 570,693 As mentioned in our #8, the second most populous country in the world is not among the best in sports. The most decorated sport is field hockey, and that hasn't gotten a medal since 1980 - though the Indian team is guaranteed at least a fourth place in #1.


Exclusions[edit]

  • This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.