31st Summer Olympics, hosted by Brazilian City, Rio de Janeiro ended after 16 days of sporting spectacle. The games had nearly 11,000 participants from 205 countries, including a first-ever refugee team, featuring in 306 events of 42 sporting disciplines. In all 65 Olympic and 19 World Records were broken during the course of games.
India also fielded its biggest-ever contingent, and had a few firsts to its name. India's first medal in Rio came from freestyle wrestler Sakshi Malik. She bagged the Bronze medal in 58 kg weight class and became the first Indian female wrestler to get a medal. The second and last medal of the Games came from Badminton where, PV Sindhu settled for a Silver. Sindhu became the first Indian Woman to win a Silver medal and the first Indian shuttler to reach the Final. Gymnast Dipa Karmnakar also brought laurels to the country as she finished 4th in Vault Final missing out on a Bronze by a whisker. Steeplechaser Lalita Babar also made the country proud by becoming the first Indian athlete in 32 years to enter the Finals of an individual event of the Games in track category.
In some unprecedented feats, American swimmer Michael Phelps cemented his status as the most successful Olympian of all time by winning five gold and one silver at Rio, taking his tally to 28 medals that includes 23 gold. This was Phelps final Olympic appearance. In Track, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt claimed his legend status as he took the 9th career Gold. He completed an unprecedented 'triple-triple' by winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles at a third successive Olympics. He had earlier announced his retirement after the Games. Bolt hangs up his boots with all the sprinting World and Olympic records to his name.
In other wonders, another American swimmer Katie Ledecky, won four gold and a silver at Rio, setting new world records in the 400m and 800m freestyle events. Her compatriot the artistic gymnast Simone Biles left the Rio Games with five medals - four gold and one bronze - from her first Olympic Games. Briton Mo Farah defended his 5000m and 10,000m titles from London Olympics. This has been achieved just once before, by Finnish great Lasse Viren at the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Games. Kenya's David Rudisha also made the headlines for retaining the Olympic 800 metres title. Jamaican sprinter, Elaine Thompson dethroned the 'Sprint Queen' Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 100m and then hauled the double sprinting title, the 200m Gold. In 400m South African Wayde van Nierkerk with his time of 43.03 seconds bettered the 17-year-old mark of 43.18 set by legend Michael Johnson.
Brazil, the five time World Football Champion, claimed their first ever Olympic Gold in their history. Their captain Neymar Jr scored the winning penalty in the final against Germany.
Tennis witnessed big upsets, as both Men's and Women's number one, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams crashed out in the initial stages. Britains' Andy Murray took the men's singles title while an unknown name from Puerto Rico, Monica Puig bagged the women's singles title.
United States ended the Games at the top of the medals tally. They finished with 46 Gold, 37 Silver and 38 Bronze. Great Britain finished on second spot with 27 Gold, 23 Silver and 17 bronze. China follows on third, with a tally of 26 Gold, 18 Silver and 26 Bronze. India finished at joint 67th position.
Other countries who won their first-evermedal at Olympics were Fiji, Jordan and Kosovo they all claimed gold. Five other nations had won medals in the past, but this edition of the Games was the first to see them reach the top of the podium were Bahrain, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Vietnam and Tajikistan.
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