Tonight, Maracana’s halls are darkened to highlight the light show and the Olympic flame.
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Staged despite a lack of funds, deep recession and social turmoil, Rio de Janeiro unfurled South America’s first Olympic Games hoping against hope that the power of sport would eclipse a seemingly endless list of problems.
The closing ceremony starts at 8 p.m. local time, which is one hour ahead of Eastern Time.
Biles came into the Olympics with high expectations and she met just about all of them.
Simone Biles was chosen to carry the American flag at the closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympics Sunday night.
Samba legend Martinho da Vila, whose tunes make their way into many popular telenovelas, sang “Carinhoso”, or “Affectionate”. With singers representing Brazil’s 26 states (and the Federal District), they performed Brazil’s national anthem.
However, apart from being a display of unimaginable physical strength, talent and technique, the Games also saw some of the hottest athletes in the world, who garnered attention not just for their super-human abilities but because they were simply too hot to handle. Italy, on the other hand, were licking their wounds after losing to Brazil for a second time after Paolo Nicolai and Danielle Lupo conceded defeat to Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt in the final of the men’s beach volleyball competition on Thursday.
The PM’s official spokeswoman said: “We have had an wonderful fortnight at the Rio Olympics and we should be looking at the differing ways that we can recognise and reward the athletes for all they have achieved, and honours are there to recognise and reward people”.
In the stadium he came out of the green pipe to a massive applause from the audience.
After a light show performance, the words “See you in Tokyo” appeared on the ground to invite everyone to the city for the next Olympics.
At Rio 2016, Team GB enjoyed its most successful ever Games in aquatics, gymnastics, taekwondo and triathlon while topping the medal table outright in cycling rowing, triathlon and sailing.
Rio 2016 organising committee president Carlos Nuzman also said the Games in Rio was a great challenge.
“In order for all Japanese people to participate in the Tokyo Olympics, we are asking companies to propose a concrete collection proposal and would like to work with the Olympic organizing committee to realize the proposal”, Yuko Sakita, of the NGO Genki Net for Creating a Sustainable Society, told the Nikkei.
Earlier, the glory belonged to Bolt, 29, who made history when he sealed the sprint “triple triple” in his final Games, reaching a record-equalling nine gold medals with his third consecutive 100m, 200m and 4x100m sweep.
But does it mean that Rio Olympics were a failure?
“Rio has made history”.
Suffice it to say, these games weren’t quite the gold standard that NBC was expecting.
United States’ Ryan Lochte checks his time in a men’s 4×200-meter freestyle heat during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 9, 2016. That’s no surprise. Down in Rio, Team USA was busy stealing his other favorite line: “We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be sick of winning”.
The nearly haphazard cutting and pasting of events, sometimes broadcast after they were long over and results announced on other stations, seems an incongruous way to cover sporting events, especially something so important as the Olympic Games.
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We’ll note that after a travel delay, we arrived at Maracana Stadium later than we wanted – it’s a rainy, dreary evening in Rio.
