Jamaica’s Usain Bolt greets fans as he celebrates winning gold in the men’s 4×100-meter relay final, during the athletics competitions on Friday
Michael Phelps won more medals than anyone else, again. And then he said farewell, also again. Usain Bolt kissed the finish line goodbye after enhancing his Olympic legacy. Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky delivered under the burden of enormous expectations. Two strangers went from rivals to forever-linked by a display of kindness, an entire island seemed to celebrate a tennis match, and a gold medalist scampered home to avoid legal issues after a robbery story unraveled. And then the home team won soccer gold.
The Rio de Janeiro Olympics were not perfect.
But there were moments — some great, some dreadful and some downright ugly — that will not, and should not, be forgotten.
MEDAL LEADERS
The U.S. dominated the medal count, a rare romp in a non-
boycotted games. Phelps won six medals, five of them gold, to increase his career haul to 23 Olympic titles and 28 medals overall. Ledecky and Biles each won five medals; Biles will carry the U.S. flag into the closing ceremony. And U.S. shooter Kim Rhode has now won a medal in six consecutive Olympics — and she might not be done.
BEST FINISH
Bolt kissing the finish line after his ninth and final Olympic gold — in nine final races — was a perfect ending. He ran the anchor leg of the 4×100-meter relay for Jamaica, won emphatically to become the third athlete ever with nine golds in track and field, and insists that this will be the end of his Olympic career.
“Nothing left to prove,” Bolt said. “I am the greatest.”
BEST ACT OF SPORTSMANSHIP
An easy pick. In the women’s 5,000-meter heat, Abbey D’Agostino of the U.S. and New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin — strangers before that day — were involved in a tumble. D’Agostino helped Hamblin up, encouraging her to finish the race. D’Agostino tore a knee ligament in the fall and obviously couldn’t finish. Hamblin wound up finishing last of 17 in the 5,000 final, so neither left with a medal.
“That girl is the Olympic spirit right there,” Hamblin said of D’Agostino. “I’ve never met her before. Like I never met this girl before. And isn’t that just so amazing?”
BIGGEST EMBARRASSMENT
Another easy pick, even in a games where an Egyptian was sent home after failing to shake an Israeli judo opponent’s hand.
Ryan Lochte is a 12-time Olympic medalist, and the odds that he’ll have a chance to ever swim for a 13th are as murky as some of the pools were in these Rio Games. Lochte’s story that a robber put a gun to his head quickly unraveled, his three teammates who were companions that night all were left to answer legal questions after he scurried home, and more repercussions from the U.S. Olympic Committee are likely coming.
BREAKOUT STAR
Narrowing the list of potential candidates to four — Simone Manuel (four swimming medals), Joseph Schooling (beat Phelps for a gold in the pool), Monica Puig (whose tennis gold was Puerto Rico’s first Olympic title in any sport) and Ibtihaj Muhammad (the barrier-breaking fencing medalist) — AP asked its Twitter followers to have a say in deciding this one.
The response was overwhelming, and one-sided: Puig is the breakout star of these games.
Reduced to tears many times after draping the Puerto Rican flag across her body after the gold-medal match, Puig beat two of the world’s best five players to win the title.
BEST COACH
Due respect to Mike Krzyzewski, Geno Auriemma, Martha Karolyi and the Japanese wrestling coach who found himself getting body-slammed twice in celebration by women’s gold medalist Risako Kawai, this one goes to Ans Botha — the 74-year-old great-grandmother who guided South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk to Olympic gold and a world record in the men’s 400 sprint.
Her style is simple. When the smile goes away and the voice gets stern, it’s time to get serious. Sort of like most great-grandmothers.
“She’s an amazing woman,” Van Niekerk said. “Her work […] I think it speaks for itself.”
BEST COUPLE
Decathlon champion Ashton Eaton of the U.S. and his wife, heptathlon bronze medalist Brianne Thiesen-Eaton of Canada, would be a very easy selection here.
But what Kate Richardson-Walsh and Helen Richardson-Walsh did was even more rare.
They’re married, and played for the same gold-medal winning British women’s field hockey team. In a games that had more openly gay athletes than ever before, theirs was a moment that surely resonated with many around the world who don’t know the first thing about field hockey.
“To win an Olympic medal is special. To win an Olympic medal with your wife standing next to you […] we will cherish this for the rest of our lives,” Kate Richardson-Walsh said.
BIGGEST OFF-FIELD STAR
A tough category, especially after Leslie Jones of “Saturday Night Live” parlayed hilarious Twitter commentary into an invite to Rio. Matthew McConaughey hung out with everyone from the U.S. women’s rugby team to Phelps, and Gisele Bundchen’s catwalk in the opening ceremony was one not to forget.
But the pick here is Zac Efron, who flew to Rio just to surprise the U.S. women’s gymnastics team — particularly Biles, who doesn’t hide her enormous crush on the actor.
BEST BRAZILIAN MOMENT
Soccer gold — and in most dramatic style, too.
Brazil vs. Germany, men’s soccer, gold-medal matchup. Neymar gives the hosts a 1-0 lead, but the Germans tie it and ultimately it goes to penalty kicks to decide the Olympic champion.
Germany makes its first four. So does Brazil.
Then Germany is stopped on its fifth, and the stage is set for Neymar — who else? — to set off a national celebration. His shot sails into the back of the net, Brazil wins and the roar could be heard all over Rio as Neymar collapsed on the field in a quivering mass of joyous tears.
Forget all the problems these games had. Forget how many Brazilians opposed them in the first place. They got their perfect finish to an imperfect Olympics. MDT/AP
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