Li said China had little to fear about the passing of the golden generation but conceded there would be more challenges as rival nations closed the gap. Phelps won five more golds for his country at Rio, bringing his total tally of Olympic gold medals to a massive 23.
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Team GB’s chef de mission Mark England described the accomplishment as “quite simply one of the finest British sporting achievements to date”.
The sport needed a boost at South America’s first Games after its image was tainted four years ago by the expulsion of eight players who deliberately played to lose pool matches in order to secure more favourable draws.
US track star Allyson Felix, now a six-time gold medalist and a victor of nine medals in all, was particularly delighted to learn that women are bringing more medals home to American than the men. Gold medallist Carolina Marin (ESP) of Spain, silver medallist P.V. Sindhu (IND) of India and bronze medallist Nozomi Okuhara (JPN) of Japan pose together. “We were so close”, she said.
US women left Rio with 27 golds – by far the most among any team of female Olympians at these games – and 61 medals total.
With three gold medals down China were still looking for their first podium-topping finish, which eventually came thanks to the men’s doubles pairing of Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan.
The second-highest winners of the Rio Olympics for America were Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles with five medals, overall. Highlighting the list of firsts by American women, Gwen Jorgensen and Helen Maroulis gave the U.S its first gold medals in triathlon and women’s wrestling, while Kim Rhode (shooting) became the first woman from any nation to win a medal at six straight Olympic Games.
Venus & Serena Wiliiams were eliminated from tennis early in the competition. “I feel so proud and so inspired by the strong women on our team. China has, so I am not anxious about (the future)”.
The women’s singles had its first non-Chinese victor since the Atlanta Games 20 years ago after Li Xuerui failed to defend her title won in London, losing in the semi-final. The milestone highlighted Team USA’s sustained competitive excellence, dating back to the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. It won its first gold in Los Angeles in 1984 when Lang was on the team. Also proving mettle without a color, American 5,000-meter runner Abbey D’Agostino received the Rio 2016 Fair Play Award, along with fellow runner Nikki Hamblin (New Zealand) and the Norwegian men’s handball team. Medals are counted once for team sports, so multiple teammates from the same sport do not increase the medal count. Highlighting the list of team accomplishments, the US women’s eight extended its gold-medal reign to 11 straight Olympic and world championship titles, winning its third straight Olympic gold medal in Rio. Led by tournament MVP Maggie Steffens, the US women’s water polo team became the first to successfully defend its Olympic title and the only nation to medal at each of the five Olympic Games since the sport debuted in 2000.
The previous record for USA medals at a fully attended Olympics was 110, set at Beijing eight years ago. The first Refugee team in Olympic history, one of the biggest crowd-pleasers of the Games, marched in behind the Olympic flag, carried by a Congolese judoka and Rio resident.
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But Blackmun was thrilled by the results, and he wasn’t the only one leaving Rio happy.
