2016 Rio Olympics – Overview And Closing

Olympic Rollercoaster

New world records, public health issues,fake robberies, media bus attacked, noticeable empty seats and pool mysteriously turns green. These are some of the events that made the 2016 Rio Olympics an Olympic rollercoaster. This marked the first Olympics held in South America. I must say the total catastrophe that everyone expected did not take place. If anything these events made headlines making the games more interesting to follow.

Best Moments

For those who did not get a chance to fully watch the Olympics I got you covered again. Here are the main highlights:

• Vanderlei de Lima lights the cauldron
• Brazil wins Soccer Gold
• Feyisa Lilesa from Ethiopia crosses his hand at the finish line as a sign of protest against the Ethiopian government.
• Gymnast Kohei Uchimura wins but his mom faints between two chairs.
• Katie Ledecky swept the 200, 400, and 800 meters swimming while breaking a world record.
• Michael Phelps decides to retire with 28 medals, 23 gold. Also breaking an ancient world record.
• Mongolian wrestling protest, wrestlers take off their clothes.
• Egyptian Islam El Shehaby refuses to shake hands with Israel’s Or Sasson after losing the judo competition.
• Nikki Hamblin from New Zealand helps Abbey D’Agostino of the United States after a collision during a women’s 5,000-meter.
• Zsofia Foldhazi from Hungary crashes into an obstacle on the horse jump during a pentathlon event.
• Fiji wins gold in Rugby Sevens, first-time Olympic sport.
• USA Men’s 4 x 100m relay team disqualified for a passing zone violation.
• Shaunae Miller from Bahamas throws herself across the finish line to beat Allyson Felix of the U.S. for gold.
• Australian water polo team member writes a marriage proposal on his body.
• Van Niekerk broke Michael Johnson’s 17 year old world record with a time of 43.03 seconds on men’s  track 400m final.
• Usain Bolt wins the men’s 100m final.
• Elaine Thompson from Jamaica won the women’s 100m final with a time of 10.71 seconds.
• Ethiopia runner Etenesh Diro competes missing a running shoe in the Women’s 3000m.
• Olivia Podmore from New Zealand and Tania Calvo Barbero from Spain fall during the women’s cycling.
• Sohrab Moradi from Iran kisses the weights after winning the men’s weightlifting 94kg.
• USA’s Simone Biles competing on the balance beam becomes the fourth American gymnast to win five medals in one Olympics.
• Cyclist Kristin Armstrong has a nose bleed during the women’s individual time trial.
• Isadora Cerullo a rudby player of Brazil kisses Marjorie a volunteer after their marriage proposal.
• Zahra Nemati of Iran competes in archery. She had previously competed in taekwondo before she was paralyzed in a car accident.

Medal Counts

Here are the overall gold, silver and bronze medals along with the overall total won by the top 10 countries:

Ending Ceremony

Everything great must come to and end. The Olympic flame was extinguished on August 21st. The closing ceremony was spectacular with special effects, fireworks, flags, dancers,live performances and so forth. There was one person who stole the show, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. During the closing ceremony he came out of an oversize green pipe dressed as Super Mario. This stunt was followed by a promotional video showing futuristic athletes in action with a Tokyo background. I don’t know about you Bros but I cant wait to see what Tokyo 2020 Olympics will look like.