Rio on Sunday witnessed a glittering colorful closing ceremony after 16 days of outstanding sporting events at the Marcana stadium in Rio. Rio Olympics 2016 was announced as closed in the closing ceremony and the 2020 Summer Olympic Games host Tokyo took up the baton promising the best Olympic games ever.
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said, “The Japan’s government will work hard so it will be the best Olympics ever.”
India Finished its Olympic campaign at 67th spot with winning one silver and one bronze medal by PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik respectively. Sakshi Malik was also the flag bearer of India at the closing ceremony as PV Sindhu returned to India on Saturday.
Olympics chief Thomas Bach said, “These were marvelous Olympic games in the marvelous city. These Olympic Games are leaving a unique legacy for generations to come. History will talk about Rio de Janeiro before and much better Rio de Janeiro after the Olympic Games.”
United States basketball team defeated Serbia 96-66, just before the closing ceremony, to win the final gold medal in the game and finishing the camping at the first place with winning 46 golds to Great Britain and China who finished second and third with winning 27 and 26 golds respectively.
The host country Brazil celebrated the the famous football win when the Brazilian team defeated Germany, under Neymar, in the penalty shootout revenging their infamous 7-1 loss in World Semi finals in 2014.
A swimming legend, Michael Phelps, by winning five gold at Rio Olympics and a silver, took his medal tally to 23 in his Olympic career.
The fastest man on earth, Usain Bolt who has announced his retirement after the 2017 world championship, won three gold medals in Rio at 100m, 200m and 4x100m event taking his Olympic medal tally to nine after winning the same in London and Beijing Olympics.
The security and the logistical problems were at its peak during the South America’s first Olympics. But it was kept under control by the authorities as the audience saw an outstanding performance by many Olympic athletes of the different countries.
Among the controversies happened in the Games, Mongolia’s Chagnaadroj Usukhbayar became the sixth weightlifter in Rio to fail a drugs test. In an another event, police raided the Irish Olympics office after the Irish International Olympic Committee chief Patrick Hickey over an alleged black market tickets scam and seized passports, phones and computers. After an alleged srong decision against Mongolian wrestler Gazorigiin Mandakhnaran, Mongolian coach protested in a furious way when he stripped down to his underwear.
By Prajakt K.