World’s fastest man, Usian Bolt of Jamaica ended his Olympic career by scooping up three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m, for the third successive Games while Brazil celebrated their first Olympic gold through their idolised soccer team. Others consider swimmer Fu Yuanhui’s instant popularity a sign of a demographic shift in Olympic viewing, as younger generations focus more on personalities than results. “No one has come close to that and it’s an unbelievable achievement”.
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Even with far fewer athletes competing in Rio than it had in London four years ago – and no home-field advantage this time, either – Britain got more medals than ever in the modern games.
China began its quest at the Games without winning gold on day one.
Then, 100-meter freestyle world champion Ning Zetao – the swimming team’s golden boy and a huge celebrity – finished his Rio races empty-handed.
The most telling example is Fu Yuanhui, a female swimmer who overnight became a social media sweetheart for claiming she had used “primeval force” in a semifinal. Considering her reputation as one of the “greatest carnival designers in the nation’s history”, the Closing Ceremony is sure to be a hit. Her reactions formed a stark contrast to the usual somber responses from Chinese athletes.
The final party was created to be more low-key than the opening, which focused heavily on Rio.
The overwrought emotions came to a powerful conclusion Sunday with Kenyan star Eliud Kipchoge winning the marathon, the USA men dominating Serbia for the gold medal in basketball and Ohio State wrestler Kyle Snyder winning the final event of the Rio Games.
The women’s volleyball team arrived in Rio ranked No. 1 and left as bronze medalists.
Hockey gold medallist Kate Richardson-Walsh was named as Great Britain’s flag bearer for the closing ceremony.
The tweet has since been deleted.
Dozens of Team GB’s victorious athletes are set to return as heroes, bringing with them the biggest medal haul for the nation in more than a century.
Despite such criticisms, officials and the public still often link China’s Olympic success to its national rise.
In a ringing endorsement for Title IX, the women were responsible for slightly over half the medals won by the Americans – 61 of 121.
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When the Olympic flame extinguished Sunday night, the final count of 70 in total with 26 gold made the widely-reported forecast look way too sanguine. For the past several years, China’s gymnastics officials have anxious that the state system is running out of steam because the national team has a dwindling pool from which to recruit top talent, a effect of isolating young talent in the state system. Russian Federation – with its track team told to stay home because of the doping probe and a cloud hovering over its athletes who were in Rio, some of whom got publicly called out by competitors – finished with 19 golds and 56 medals overall, both well below its normal showings.
