He also recalled, with pleasure and honour, his participation at the opening ceremony, in the Olympic Torch relay, visit to the Olympic Village and attending some of the events.
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Whatever the reason, this year’s Olympics failed to deliver ratings in the way NBC had hoped, raising questions about whether viewers still see the games as appointment television.
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).
Other heroes of Rio, including cycling golden couple Jason Kenny and Laura Trott, had already arrived back in the United Kingdom before the official Team GB flight.
The top Facebook post was of beloved Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo congratulating Jamaican sprinter Bolt for his gold medal victories in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4×100-meter relay.
Brazilians came to the closing ceremony happy, many wearing the canary yellow jersey of the nation’s sports teams, having won two late gold medals in their two favourite sports, men’s soccer and volleyball. Even though the Indian delegates at the Olympic games this year returned home with just two medals, the country showed undying support for the sportsmen at the games. It drew an average total audience of 25.4 million viewers on the broadcast network in prime time.
In fact, the Rio ratings were the first time the TV audience declined from the previous Summer Olympics since the games in Sydney, Australia back in 2000.
Relieved organisers may well embark on a few days of back-slapping following a triumphant Games, but Rio’s citizen’s will surely now wonder what will be the legacy of an event that cost the city billions of dollars it could ill-afford.
Also on the plane were triathlon medal-winning brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee and five-time rowing Olympic medallist Katherine Grainger. “We surpassed what we thought was an unattainable threshold”, said Seth Winter, NBC executive vie president-advertising sales, NBC Sports Group, before the start of the Games.
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Digitally there was 218,000 hours of coverage, which the Olympics body said was more than ever – “nearly double TV and 2.5 times more than London 2012”. “But hopefully in four years we get it together and have a measurement that truly measures the total viewing that these games, or really anything, is bringing in”.
