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Another Olympic Games has drawn to a close with a glittering, carnival-like ceremony that saw the handover of the Olympic flag from Brazil to Japan in a rain-sodden Maracana Stadium.
The downpour failed to dampen moods as a touch of melancholy and a sense of pride converged at the closing ceremony as Rio celebrated pulling off South America’s first games.
Samba dancers, singers, drummers and a giant plumed macaw float mixed with hundreds of athletes paraded around the stadium as a final volley of fireworks lit up the night sky and provided the coda.
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.
In the last of 306 medal ceremonies, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach draped the gold around the neck of Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, winner of the men’s marathon earlier in the day.
The city handed over the Olympic flag to Tokyo, site of the 2020 Summer Games, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared in the stadium dressed as popular video game character Mario, tunnelling from Tokyo to Rio.
Bach declared the Rio Games closed and expressed hope that they had left a lasting mark on the metropolitan area of 12 million people.
“These Olympic Games are leaving a unique legacy for generations to come,” he said. “History will talk about a Rio de Janeiro before and a much better Rio de Janeiro after the Olympic Games.”
In a final symbolic act, the Olympic flame that had burned since August 5 was then extinguished.
Despite all the pre-Games controversy about doping scandals, unfit infrastructure, the Zika virus, the cost of hosting the Olympics when the country is in its worst recession since the 1930s, and more, the 17 days of competition passed largely without incident as these things tend to do when it comes to the crunch.
There were a few slight hiccups on the way. There was the humorous, such as the luminous green diving pool, the couch in the rowing lake which caused a boat to capsize, and the Mongolian wrestling coaches stripping off in the middle of a wrestling ring in protest at a late penalty to one of their athletes.
There was also the serious, no more so than Ryan Lochte, one of America’s most decorated swimmers, and some of his buddies fabricating a story that they were robbed at gunpoint to cover up vandalising a petrol station toilet.
This not only enraged Brazilians, already defending the reputation of their police force after a spate of legitimate assaults and robberies against government ministers, athletes and tourists, but also Americans angry that their stars were playing up to the ‘American abroad’ stereotype.
Of course, the best stories from the Olympics are of success, both individual and team.
There was the remarkable comeback of American swimmer Michael Phelps, who won five golds to reinforce his distinction as the most decorated Olympian of all time.
Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, the ultimate showman and the biggest star at the Games by far, brought a fitting end to his brilliant Olympic career by securing a sweep of the sprint titles and completing the ‘triple triple’.
Bahrain won its first ever gold medal as Ruth Jebet claimed the 3,000m steeplechase crown. The Kenyan-born athlete garnered some controversy, with some judging the situation farcical as she was granted citizenship just to compete for Bahrain and provide the country with a medal, but almost every other nation has had athletes born outside their borders competing for them before.
For many in the football-mad host nation, the best moments happened in the Maracana, where Brazil defeated Germany in the final on Saturday, with superstar Neymar scoring the winning penalty and captaining his team to gold.
For this writer, the best part of the games was seeing the success of Team GB, claiming 27 golds and 67 medals in total to complete their best ever haul and become the first nation to both better their tally five Games in succession and improve on their total after hosting a Games.
Coming second in the medal table, above the disappointing China, is an astounding achievement considering 20 years ago in Atlanta the team only achieved one gold medal and has a significantly smaller population to choose from.
Roll on Tokyo!
