Space Station Astronauts Threw Their Own Zero-G Olympic Games

"Events ranged from synchronized floating or lack-of-floor routine to (very) long jumps and no-hand ball."

Space Olympics

The Olympic spirit has become so infectious that even astronauts stationed on board the International Space Station were inspired to put on their own microgravity games — a heartwarming example of international camaraderie.

"Today the Olympics start in Tokyo, but we held the very first space Olympics last week," European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet wrote in a caption of a photo album uploaded to Facebook over the weekend. The images were taken by Pesquet earlier this month and uploaded to Flickr.

"For crew cohesion and fun, we put together a friendly competition between the Soyuz team and the Dragon team!" he added.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRqfW5WNu8w/

Lack-of-Floor Routine

With long distance running, swimming, and skateboarding out of the question, astronauts had to resort to devising their own competitions. NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei "did a great job as the grand organizer, and the events ranged from synchronized floating or lack-of-floor routine to (very) long jumps and no-hand ball," Pesquet wrote.

To mark the occasion, the crew also put up a flag of every single country on the planet, a colorful and cheerful display covering up the entire "roof" of the orbital station.

"Let the Earthly games begin," Pesquet wrote.

READ MORE: Astronauts are celebrating their own Summer Olympics in space (satellites, too) [Space.com]

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