“I remember Sir Alex Ferguson got it because he was at Manchester United, and Sir Steve Redgrave for what he did, and to be able to be in the same category as them would be pretty awesome”.
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The answer was very fast.
Brazil and the world bid farewell Sunday to the first Olympic Games in South America, a 16-day spectacle that combined numerous highlight reel moments with ugly and even freaky episodes that sometimes overshadowed the competitions.
Dozens of Team GB’s victorious athletes are set to return as heroes, bringing with them the biggest medal haul for the nation in more than a century. “You will have a place in our hearts forever”, he told the Maracana while receiving a thunderous warm applause.
Taking their place in history, Allyson Felix took home three medals to become the all-time winningest woman in Olympic track and field with six golds and nine overall, while Ashton Eaton tied an Olympic record to become the first USA decathlete to repeat as Olympic champion since Bob Mathias (1948 and 1952).
The team pursuit gauntlet was laid down by the men on Friday – and the women showed their world class pursuiting ability the following evening with a sensational gold. There was a tribute to cave paintings of some of the first inhabitants of the Americas, in Serra da Capivara, in Northeastern Brazil, today the nation’s poorest region.
It produced a classic showdown in the final and the fastest team pursuit race for women of all time.
Prior to those Games, GB rarely triumphed in cycling and it was completely unfathomable they could wrestle away a gymnastics medal.
In truth, it was a mix of individual commitment, family and friends, and a state with money able to pick winners, in the way the United Kingdom has refused for years to do in industry and investment.
GB rowers won a 5 consecutive Olympic Gold.
Economists at Goldman Sachs had predicted China would take home 89 medals, including 36 gold, to take second place in the medal table in Rio. “Now they come along with a high level”.
Incredibly Britain is now an Olympic super power, better than Russian Federation (with their dope cheats in London, or without in Rio) and now China.
Komeil Ghasemi added a silver medal to Iran’s medals in the Olympics.
Trott was defending omnium champion and had secured the world title in London and never looked like losing the grip on her crown in Brazil.
“The problems inherent in the state-sponsored sports system, which focuses resources on winning gold medals, are such that it is experiencing a cyclical low and is crying out for further reforms – much like the Chinese economy, which has slowed from 9 percent growth in 2008, when China scored 51 golds, to somewhere about 6.7 percent this year”, a story in the newspaper said on Sunday.
In gymnastics, where China won four gold medals in London, they won none at all in Rio, prompting comments from the sport’s boss that China need to move with the times.
James was unable to overcome Vogel in the final, but claimed a second silver of the week.
“When you see people who I idolise backing up in successive Olympics, like Sir Chris Hoy and my fiancé Jason, I wondered how on earth these people do it”.
Remarkably that tally surpasses the 65 with 29 gold from the home Games of four years ago and is topped only by the London Games of 1908 when they won 146, 56 of them gold – totals inflated somewhat by many events where barely anyone else took part.
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Among those winners were Bradley Wiggins, who now has the most medals of any British Olympian with eight, including five gold, and Jason Kenny, who joined Chris Hoy on six as victor of most golds.
