The 10-strong refugee team that competed under the Olympic flag were welcomed to the Games Village in classic Brazilian style: warmly and with plenty of music and dancing.
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The host Brazilians got soccer gold that they craved, the Russians struggled on the heels of the exposure of a state-sponsored doping program, and the Chinese finished well below expectations.
The hard-earned collection from Rio included 27 gold, 23 silver and 17 bronze – the biggest medal count for the nation in more than a century.
Their 51-medal margin over second-place China is the largest in a non-boycotted Olympics in almost a century. “This is more than just a medal”.
According to CBS News, female athletes on Team USA won 61 of the team’s medals, which is literally one medal over half the total (in whole numbers), meaning women won most of the medals.
The Rio Games brought first medals for Fiji, Jordan and Kosovo – and all three opened their accounts with gold, Fiji in the first Olympic rugby sevens competition.
By now, the Americans winning the medal race is nearly commonplace.
Franklin became a swimming star with a fantastic performance four years ago in London, but she failed to match the hype in Rio with zero medals in individual events.
The previous record for USA medals at a fully attended Olympics was 110, set at Beijing eight years ago.
Speaking of the remarkable achievements at the Olympic Games, Prime Minister Theresa May said, “For the past fortnight, the people of the United Kingdom have been filled with pride as we’ve watched our Olympians take victory in so many sports with power, grace and control”. Tajikistan, interestingly, had sent a total of 7 athletes to the Games out of which 4 had won a medal. She won three golds and silver, often winning by wide margins and also shattering the world record in the 400 meter individual medley.
4/11 In spite of the downpours, the Maracana showed its samba side as the Rio Olympics closing ceremony took on a distinctly Carnaval feel.
“I’m very proud, and, yes, I cried”, Karolyi said, per NBCOlympics.com’s Nick Ziccardi.
China won 26 golds, just over half as many as it won in Beijing in 2008.
Ruth Beitia of Spain earned gold in the women’s high jump. Efimova has twice been banned.
“I stand by what I said”, King said.
Chief executive of British Gymnastics Jane Allen told BBC Radio 5 live: “You wouldn’t want to be in some of the other countries at the moment, who are examining themselves”.
There were plenty of positives for others, however.
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Earlier, the glory belonged to Bolt, 29, who made history when he sealed the sprint “triple triple” in his final Games, his third consecutive 100m, 200m and 4x100m sweep. Yes, they did win gold with a 30-point demolition of Serbia on Sunday, but this team played sloppy, uninspiring basketball at times, including too much one-on-one play and inconsistent shooting.
