For the crowds that poured into the streets to celebrate the soccer win, or shouted from windows and in bars throughout a rainy Rio during the volleyball final on Sunday, the victories were another sign that a Games many once thought destined for disaster had far exceeded local expectations.
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As a nation overall, the U.S.
By now, the Americans winning the medal race is nearly commonplace. The men, however, weren’t as impressive.
World number one Lee Chong Wei defeated nemesis and twice champion Lin Dan in a classic men’s singles semi-final but the Malaysian was left heartbroken again in his Olympic swansong after a third successive defeat in the gold medal-decider. “I am proud of my city and my people”.
Team GB has recorded its best finish in 108 years after winning 67 medals including 27 golds, 23 silvers and 17 bronzes.
US women left Rio with 27 golds – by far the most among any team of female Olympians at these games – and 61 medals total.
However, Argentina was banking on at least another medal from its women’s field hockey team, which had medaled at the past four Olympics. There was one issue with the swim team, though, and we’ll address it below. In fact, last night was down 49% in the demo in early numbers from the fast affiliates of August 14 – which saw Usain Bolt speed to another gold.
As for the total gold count, US women alone earned 27.
Paes has poured public money into the Rio Games, largely via state-owned sponsors, but the costs have brought criticism at a time of economic hardship and political turmoil.
There were further gold medals in men’s freestyle wrestling, women’s individual artistic gymnastics, and the men’s individual modern pentathlon to complete a stunning day. Alizadeh became the first ever Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal. It surprisingly had never won gold in this event despite its enormous success in FIFA World Cup history.
Brazil also rallied at the end. It was a moment every Brazil soccer fan won’t soon forget.
MIXED BAG: Brazil managed to pull off South America’s first Olympics under hard economic and political conditions, with the competitions, venues, athletes, friendly hosts, TV images and Rio’s scenic backdrops all rising to the occasion. The defending gold medalists lost in the quarterfinals to Sweden, who were led by former USWNT manager Pia Sundhage. But it was also a relief that after Zika and all else, the finishing line had been reached. The US was top.
Britain is the first country to improve on a home medal haul at the next Games, beating the 65 medals from London 2012. Her and Ross did win bronze, but it wasn’t what the expected result from this star tandem.
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The Russians finished fourth with just 56 medals, and most of the talk surrounding their athletes centered around doping scandals.
