The British, they had a Games to savor as well.
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Gymnast Whitlock (above, with Nicola Adams) was also pictured carrying out his Olympic gold medal-winning routine on the seats in the plane’s First Class carriage, while boxer Adams and divers Chris Mears and Jack Laugher were also thought to be among those in high-end seats.
And other athletes – including the women’s hockey team who scooped Team GB’s first ever hockey gold – posted snaps of themselves drinking champagne. He won six in Rio, while Biles and US swimmer Katie Ledecky each won five to lead to lead a big haul from American women.
Twitter also amassed a winning number of interactions, with users sending out 187 million tweets about the games yielding 75 billion impressions (or views on and off Twitter).
The win was especially special for USA head coach Adam Krikorian, who lost his brother just two days before the Opening Ceremonies.
“Got ’em”, Felix said, smiling.
The Liverpudlian finished sixth in Rio and needs to address her weakness in both the shot put and javelin, as well as banishing a mental fragility which gripped her in the latter event, if she is to claim a medal in Tokyo, where 22-year-old Nafissatou Thiam will bid for back-to-back Olympic titles. And the margin between first and second in the overall medals race this year tops all others (the boycotted games of 1980 and 1984 excluded) since the Americans won 67 more medals than Italy did at the 1932 Los Angeles Games.
“We are very resilient, we didn’t leave anything important unaddressed”, said Augusta Porto, 36, a translator and Rio resident.
Carlos Nuzman, the president of the Rio Olympic Organizing Committee said, I am the happiest man alive.
State media labelled the Games as China’s “worst Olympic flop” and cited Britain’s spending as the reason Team GB toppled them on the medal tally.
“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.
Non-medal winners had to make do with a place in economy while silver and bronze medallists were treated to business class for the flight home.
The Russians and the Chinese probably didn’t feel the same.
There was the remarkable comeback of American swimmer Michael Phelps, who won five golds to reinforce his distinction as the most decorated Olympian of all time.
Remarkably, 35% of of Team GB’s athletes returned with a medal of some description around their necks after an unparalleled Olympics in Brazil. Efimova has twice been banned.
“Personally I hope I can inspire somebody”, she said.
Sir Hugh Robertson, BOA vice-chairman, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “The National Lottery funding is reasonably secure in any event because that relies on people buying their lottery tickets week in, week out and incidentally, if you haven’t done so please do so because this supports our Olympic athletes”. “It was like war”.
Usain Bolt helped his native Jamaica come third with 11 medals – one per every 247,812 people.
Soccer-crazed Brazil got partial payback against Germany, winning gold two years after a 7-1 World Cup semi-final shellacking that left Brazilians fuming.
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Monica Puig created history for the Puerto Ricans when she upset reigning Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in the women’s final of the tennis tournament to become her country’s first ever gold medallist. He’s much bigger than I am. “So much love and support throughout my career and I just wanted this one for them”.
