The
2016 Olympics held in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil was a major international multi-sport event which finally ended on 21st August 2016. Around 11,000 athletes from 207 nations participated in 28 different sports. Rio created history as it became the first South American city to host the Olympics. This time the Olympics games were special because there were three first-time entrants which were
Kosovo,
South Sedan, and
Refugee Olympic Team.
Just like the previous Olympic Games, United States topped the medal tally for the fifth time and bagged a total of 46 golds and 121 medals in total. Great Britain finished 2nd on the medal tally for the first time in its history with 27 gold medals and 67 medals in total. India, on the other hand, did not perform too good as compared to the previous Olympics. India got two medals this time whereas, in the London Olympics India got 6 medals.
There were many unforgettable moments of the games which needs to be highlighted. Some of them are mentioned below:-
1. Majlinda Kelmendi's Gold Medal in Judo
Kosovo's Majlinda Kelmendi won her country's first Olympic medal and that too, a gold. Kosovo proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008 and this was the first time it participated in Olympics. It is still considered as a disputed territory and is not recognized by the UN. The 25-year old is ranked world number 1 in Judo women's 52kg category.
She defeated Italy's Odette Giuffrida in the final. Majlinda in an interview remarked her win as a 'Great Moment'. She was happy and emotional while receiving her medal and she was glad that she could make her family proud.
2. Joseph Schooling defeated Michael Phelps
Another beautiful moment at Rio 2016 was
Joseph Schooling defeating his idol Michael Phelps in men's 100m butterfly event. Joseph is a Singaporean swimmer and he helped his country to attain the first ever Olympic gold. He not only defeated his idol but he even broke the Olympic record by clocking 50.39 seconds. A picture of Joseph meeting Phelps back in 2008 when he was only 16 was widely shared on social media. He was extremely happy as it was a dream come true for him.
3. Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan exchange T-shirts
Another great moment of Rio 2016 came at the end of the men's singles badminton semi-final. At the end of the match, Malaysia's
Lee Chong Wei and
Lin Dan exchanged their T-shirt as a gesture of respect and sportsmanship. This moment was one of the best because Lin Dan was two-time defending Olympic gold medalist and in the previous two Olympics Lin Dan had defeated Lee Chong to take the gold. But this time, Lee took his revenge and overpowered him and denied him a third consecutive gold.
The Rio Olympics was a very successful event where some athletes brought glory to their nation while some disappointed with their performance, some had victory tears in their eyes while some were crying after their defeat and there were some who broke records and some who could not do well. Overall, it was 17 days of some really exciting action where many created history. Now the athletes will take away the positives from Rio and would compete four years later in Tokyo.
Written by Bhavik Dhall
A first year college student who loves to write articles on various topics and is very good at expressing himself
