Rio 2016: The greatest show on Earth in stats - BBC Sport

Rio 2016: The greatest show on Earth in stats

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Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Simone BilesImage source, Getty Images
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Between them, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Simone Biles won 12 gold medals in Rio

The flame went out on the 2016 Olympics in Rio on Sunday, bringing to an end 16 remarkable days of sporting action.

More than 10,000 athletes, representing 207 nations, competed in 31 sports in Brazil, with 306 sets of medals awarded over the course of the Games.

Records were broken, history was made, legends confirmed and superstars born.

BBC Sport looks at the key stats to emerge from the event:

USA retain top spot

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  • For the second successive Games, and the 17th time overall, the United States topped the medal table with 43 golds.

  • The nation's overall medal total of 116 is their highest since 1984, when they claimed 174 on home turf in Los Angeles.

  • The US were dominant in athletics, winning 31 medals (13 of which were gold) - 20 more than second-placed Kenya, who won six golds.

  • The nation also ruled in the pool, winning 33 of the 104 medals awarded, which is 32%. Of these medals, 16 were gold. Their nearest rivals, Australia, won 10 swimming medals (three gold).

  • The USA's Rio tally helped them achieve two notable historical milestones as they passed 1,000 golds and 2,500 Olympic medals overall. They have extended their sizable lead at the top of the all-time Olympic medal table.

Image source, BBC Sport

On the board...

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US trio top the medal charts

  • The USA also dominated the podium for multiple-medal winning athletes as Michael Phelps once again shone and fellow swimmer Katie Ledecky and gymnast Simone Biles enhanced their global reputation.

  • In his fifth Games, Phelps took his personal medal tally to 28 (23 golds, three silvers and two bronzes) courtesy of another stunning display in the pool.

  • Ledecky, 19, followed up her solitary gold in London in 2012 with four more, along with a silver, as she dominated the women's freestyle events.

  • In her Olympic debut, 19-year-old Biles added to her remarkable international medal haul with four golds and a bronze.

Image source, BBC Sport

Lightning Bolt strikes again

  • In his final Games, Jamaica's Usain Bolt confirmed his status as the greatest sprinter of all time, winning three more golds to achieve an unprecedented Olympic 'triple triple' in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.

  • Bolt's haul of nine golds is the joint highest among Olympic athletics, putting him equal with USA sprinter and long jumper Carl Lewis and Finnish long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi.

Image source, BBC Sport

Some notable milestones

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Records fall

  • 27 new world records were set in Rio within the seven Olympic sports that recognise them - archery, athletics, modern pentathlon, track cycling, shooting, swimming and weightlifting.

  • American Ledecky claimed two of those, in the women's 400m and 800m freestyle.

  • The women's team pursuit cycling record was broken three times during the course of the event in Rio by Great Britain Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Joanna Rowsell-Shand and Laura Trott.

  • In athletics, Michael Johnson's 17-year-old men's 400m record was broken by South Africa's Wayde van Niekirk, while Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana smashed the women's 10,000m record, clocking 29 minutes, 17.45 seconds to take 14 seconds off Wang Junxia's 1993 time.

  • Gold medallist Anita Wlodarczyk broke her own world record in the women's hammer, setting a new distance of 82.29m - the sixth time the Pole has set a new record in the event.

A global games

Image source, BBC Sport

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