Despite the small delay caused by the deluge of selfie requests, however, the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics went off perfectly. It lasted for nearly three hours, celebrating Brazil’s arts, and was held in a wet Maracana.
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Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe also joined the festivities by turning into video game character Super Mario.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are expected to feature many more gaming and anime references which makes the game’s opening and closing ceremonies worthwhile to watch for gamers and non-gamers alike.
“Over the last 16 days a united Brazil inspired the world, in hard times for all of us, with its irresistible joy for life”.
The parade of athletes was dubbed “Simone Selfie Central” by NBC’s Mary Carillo, who described a “conga line of people” asking for a #simoneselfie.
In a final symbolic act, the Olympic flame that had burned since August 5 was then extinguished in a downpour of artificial rain. Afterward, it gave life to a large tree sculpture that reportedly is a symbol for rebirth.
Pyrotechnics explode during the closing ceremony for the Summer Olympic inside Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Team USA got the most gold medals, with 46.
Cuba put in the region’s second-best performance, with 11 medals (5 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze), though fewer than it won at the London Games.
More than 10,000 athletes, representing 207 nations, competed in 31 sports in Brazil, with 306 sets of medals awarded over the course of the Games.
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Women’s hockey captain Kate Richardson-Walsh carried the flag for Great Britain, who finished the Games with 67 medals – their highest tally at an overseas Olympics. Russian Federation and Germany closed the top five on fourth and fifth place, with 56 and 42 medals in total, respectively.
