Their 51-medal margin over second-place China is the largest in a non-boycotted Olympics in almost a century.
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“The outstanding performance of Team GB reflects the talent and hard work of the athletes and support teams”. “There have been so many first-time performances by so many athletes in different sports and our hats go off to the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee for creating an environment in which our athletes could thrive and reach their potential”.
They finished, writing: “To everyone with Team GB – well done!”
Try telling one of the 80,000 Brazilians crammed into the Maracana stadium, who roared deliriously as Neymar won Brazil football gold with a crisp last-kick penalty, that this Olympics was anything but a success.
“These Olympic Games are leaving a unique legacy for generations to come”, he said. It was Weir’s fourth career Olympic medal after getting a pair of silvers in 2004 and a bronze in 2012. Felix now has won nine medals and six golds in four Olympics to become not only the Trojan career leader in total medals and gold medals but also the most decorated USA track and field woman Olympic medalist ever (she is tied for most medals among all track and field women internationally).
American athletes also impressed in track and field, winning 32 medals and 13 golds, highlighted by the first-ever US podium sweep in the women’s 100-meter hurdles from Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin. China was in third position with 70 medals, 26 gold, 18 silver and 26 bronze.
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team was equally spectacular, winning nine medals and surpassing the team’s previous high of eight from the 2008 Games in Beijing and 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
She said there would be no formal cap on the number of honours to be handed out for sporting excellence for Olympians in the next round of gongs.
Rio de Janeiro returned to the cold reality of Brazil’s political crisis and recession on Monday after bringing a carnivalesque curtain down on its Olympics festival and passing the torch to Tokyo.
The Games of the 31st Olympiad came to an emotional and heartfelt close on a rainy evening at famed Maracana Stadium while competitors representing 206 countries celebrated what will go down as an unqualified success for all of Brazil. Japan, Olympic hosts in four years, were sixth with 12 golds, while their 41 medals were a record and cause for optimism ahead of the 2020 edition.
Katinka Hosszu won four medals in Rio, a USC record for most individual event medals in a single Olympics. It was a Games that belonged to the Americans, as they started off by grabbing the first gold up for grabs in the women’s 10m air rifle.
There were 306 gold medals at stake in 28 sports across 42 disciplines.
“Got ’em”, Felix said, smiling. “I feel so proud and so inspired by the strong women on our team”.
Even before the Games were over at Rio, British media began lobbying to ensure all the athletes, coaches and administrators were recognised in some way and Ms May responded. On the same night of Phelps’ last career race, the US women’s 400-meter medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Simone Manuel and Dana Vollmer made history by securing the 1,000th gold medal for Team USA at the Olympic Games in summer competition.
Of the 213 Americans who earned medals in Rio, almost 85 percent competed in NCAA collegiate athletics, with the majority of those coming in swimming, track and field, and team sports.
The previous record for US medals at a fully attended Olympics was 110, set at Beijing eight years ago.
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A video featuring highlights of the Rio Olympics was played on the stadium’s screens, before the men’s marathon medal ceremony.
