The British, they had a Games to savor as well.
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But memories of swimming legend Phelps and the “immortal” Bolt will linger after they set the 2016 Olympics alight. As for the total gold count, US women alone earned 27.
Zac Efron kissing 19-year-old Simone Biles, who won a record of four gold medals in women’s gymnastics in a single games, was the most retweeted athlete tweet during the games, amassing almost 163,000 retweets and nearly 459,000 likes as of now.
Stanford’s bragging rights gained even more clout when the United States women’s water polo team, which includes five Olympians with ties to Stanford, defended its gold medal title.
Then came Rio standout Katie Ledecky.
The Americans also led the pack with the most gold: a total of 46, compared to Great Britain’s 27 and China’s 26.
Remarkably that tally surpasses the 65 with 29 gold from the home Games of four years ago and is topped only by the London Games of 1908 when they won 146, 56 of them gold – totals inflated somewhat by many events where barely anyone else took part. She took the gold in the Women’s Individual Overall, Team Overall, Vault, Floor exercise and a bronze in the beam. The games themselves were the first Olympics held in the South America in the competition’s long history.
But the Rio Games were far from an unqualified success, either.
But Blackmun was thrilled by the results, and he wasn’t the only one leaving Rio happy. This makes Britain’s recent success all the more remarkable.
“The atmosphere at the GB house has been awesome in the village”, said Mo Farah, who won gold for Britain in the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races to match the feat he pulled off at London in 2012. Without winning any medals, their appearance alone was enough to send an encouraging message to 60 million people who were forced to flee home.
Russian Federation – with around half their team, including the track and field stars, banished from Rio following doping revelations – finished fourth with 19 golds.
The Russians and the Chinese probably didn’t feel the same. This is a departure from London 2012 when so many Britons won gold, the government had to limit the number of gongs in the sporting category it gave out. In the end, his team hung all of their gold medals around Krikorian’s neck as a sign appreciation for their strong leader. Efimova has twice been banned.
“There you go. I’m the greatest”, he said.
“It was not positive”, Efimova told the BBC.
There were plenty of positives for others, however.
Jamaica sprinter Usain Bolt wrapped up his Olympic in impressive fashion with a three-peat in three different races – 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and 4×100-meter relay.
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At a packed Maracanã Stadium, the national cathedral of football, Neymar, Jr. delivered the gold-medal winning kick as Brazil defeated Germany 5-4 in a penalty kick shootout.
