Encomium
The Rio 2016 Olympics in Brazil kicked off on Friday, August 5, 2016 and came to an end on Sunday, August 21, 2016, with the Olympic flame turned off.
Here are the notable stats from the 2016 Olympics:
- More than 10,000 athletes represented from 207 nations, all eyes was on winning medals.
- A total of 31 sports were listed at the Olympics.
- An estimated cost of hosting the 2016 Rio Olympics was around $4.6 billion with an excess of $1.6 billion.
- A total of 306 sets of medals were awarded at the end of the Olympics game. Records were broken and history was made.
- United States made the top medal tables with 46 gold, 37 silver and 36 bronze, while Great Britain and China came in second and third respectively.
- Rio’s top three athletes with the highest medals are swimmer, Michael Phelps (5 gold and 1 silver), Kaie Ladecky, also a swimmer with 4 gold and 1 silver and SImone Biles (4 gold and 1 bronze), all from Team USA.
- Jamaican athlete and superstar, Usain Bolt became an all-time sprinter. He remarkably won gold medals in three consecutive Olympics competitions (2008, 2012 and 2016) in the 100m, 200m and 4×100 m relay. His medals totalled nine gold.
- Mo Farah from Team Great Britain became the first man to compete and win in the 5,000m and 10,000 m double in two consecutive Olympic games.
- Fiji, Jordan, Kosovo won their first ever Olympic medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
- Lastly, an estimated total of 350 m people from the world watched the opening ceremony on Friday, August 5, 2016
