Who says astronauts can’t participate in the Olympics too? 

While the world’s best athletes are running and jumping for medals in Tokyo, a different kind of competition happened 250 miles above their heads as the astronauts of the International Space Station (ISS) held their own Olympic games. 

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet posted a series of delightful tweets wherein the astronauts aboard the ISS competed in a variety of games on Friday. It included the lack-of-floor routine:

No-hand ball:

Synchronised space swimming:

And weightless sharpshooting:

Pesquet announced the start of the "very first Space Olympics" on Twitter last week to mark the beginning of the Tokyo Olympics. The crew even decked out the ISS in country flags for the occasion. 

Instead of pitting the "athletes" up by country, though, the ISS astronauts put their own spin on things.

"For crew cohesion, we put together a friendly competition between the #Soyuz team and the #CrewDragon team," Pesquet tweeted. 

While there's been no update as to which team got gold and silver, it's fair to say that Crew Dragon demolished Russia’s Soyuz crew in the synchronized space swimming competition — though, Soyuz's no-floor routine could give Simone Biles a run for her money. No word yet on whether or not the Russian crew passed their doping test.

All joking aside, the videos are a hilarious and downright heartwarming showcase of the fun and camaraderie that nations can have when working together. We can all definitely learn a thing or two from our amazing astronauts on the ISS… or at least, a few new dance moves. 

More on ISS: Russia Will Investigate Whether Space Station Suffered Damage During Incident


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