It was a colorful ending of the Rio 2016 Olympics Summer Games. Among the highlights were Tokyo’s impressive showcase, Brazil’s carnival parade, Tonga’s Judo athlete Pita Taufatoufa (who became famous in the opening ceremony because of his oiled-up look and traditional dress), Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who was portrayed as Super Mario and many more. Athletes braved the three hour closing ceremony combined with rain.
For past 16 days, Brazil inspired the world with joy for life and putting up a great show of Olympics. The 31st Olympiad is closed now, after 16 days of competition featuring more than 11 thousand athletes, a refugee team and 206 nations. The closing ceremony was watched by millions and it witnessed dramatic extinguishing of the Olympic flame.
The medal tally was no surprise as United States topped the list with 46 gold, 37 silver and 38 bronze medals followed by Great Britain (27 gold, 23 silver and 17 bronze). Surprisingly, China landed in the third spot with 26 gold, 18 silver and 26 bronze medals. With the highest number of Indian contingent it was disappointment with only two medals but every athlete performed better than their personal best.
The closing ceremony at Maracana was turned into street carnival, human formation of iconic Rio Landmarks Christ the Redeemer, the dramatic extinguishing of Olympic flame which later gave life to a large tree symbolizing rebirth and the firework at the stadium was larger than life to watch for. The closing ceremony saw the symbolic handover of the Olympic flag when Rio mayor Eduardo Paes returned it to IOC president who passed it over to Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike.
This was the most successful Olympic games for Great Britain as a participant nation in 108 years. The GB team won more than double the amount of medals in Velodrome. The British pair with 10 gold medals in cycling Jason Kenny and Laura Trott will marry in September. And we can’t miss the performance of Mo Farah on the final day when he became the only second man to retain his 5,000m and 10, 000m title. As golf returned to Olympics, Justin Rose won his first gold medal. While 58 year old Nick Skelton became the country’s oldest medalist, there were historic golds for GB team in gymnastics, women’s hockey and diving.
While Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, Katinka Hossuz, Usain Bolt, Jason Kenny, Danuta Kozak, Ryan Murphy, Simone Manuel and Maya Dirado became the most decorated athlete of Rio 2016, brilliant effort by many other countries and athletes were the showcase of the mega event. The game brought first medal Olympic medals for Fiji, Bahrain, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Vietnam and Tajikistan. In total 27 world records were set in Rio in archery, athletics, modern pentathlon, weightlifting, shooting, track cycling, shooting and swimming.