All About Rio Olympics 2016

Rio Olympics 2016 which is also known as 'Games of the XXXI Olympiad' was held in Rio de Janeiro city of Brazil from 5th August to 21st August 2016. Read as 'Jogos Olimpicos de Verão de 2016' in Portuguese, Olympics 2016 had the motto of 'A new world' (In Portuguese - 'Um mundo novo).

Announced on 2nd October 2009 during the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark, Rio became the first South American city to host the prestigious Olympic Games. Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) had been selected as the host country for 2016 Summer Olympics leaving behind Spain (Madrid), Japan (Tokyo), and United States (Chicago). Later interestingly Japan went on to seize the host country for 2020 Summer Olympics. 

Rio Olympics 2016 Opening Ceremony, Venue, and Mascots

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony of Rio 2016 Olympics was held on 5th August 2016 at the Maracana Stadium. The ceremony was officially started by Michel Temer as acting president of the Olympic committee.

Olympics 2016 Venues

The event organized at 34 different venues, of which nine were new, eighteen existing venues, and seven temporarily created venues. Some of the important stadiums were - Maracan Stadium, Arena da Amazoina, Arena Fonte Nova, Arena Corinthians, Mineirao, Estadio Nacional, and Olympic Stadium (Rio de Janeiro).

Mascot for the Event

Vinicius was the official mascot for the Olympic game and was designed by a Sao Paulo based design and animation company called Birdo. Vinicius which was named after popular musician Vinicius de Moraes represents the wildlife of Brazil and was designed taking attributes from monkeys, cats, and birds.

Sports Events in Rio Olympics

Rio Olympics was planned to host 28 sports and a total of 306 events. Two new sports that were included in the year 2016 were - Rugby sevens and Golf. Though baseball and softball, karate, squash, and roller sports had applied, but could not get majority votes for inclusion. Some of the sports like Cycling, Marathon Swimming, and Triathlon were organized at exotic locations of Fort Copacabana and the sailing events were organized at Marina da Gloria.

List of Sports

The list of 28 sports organized in Rio 2016 -

Aquatics	Cycling	Handball	Table Tennis
Archery	Equestrian	Judo	Taekwondo
Athletics	Fencing	Modern Pentathlon	Tennis
Badminton	Field Hockey	Rowing	Triathlon
Basketball	Football	Rugby Sevens	Volleyball
Boxing	Golf	Sailing	Weightlifting
Canoeing	Gymnastics	Shooting	Wrestling

Participating National Olympics Committees or Countries in Olympics 2016

In Rio Olympics 2016, 207 countries and 11,237 athletes participated. Countries like South Sudan and Kosovo qualified to participate for the first time in Olympics. After being banned for the second time in October 2015, an independent athlete group from Kuwait also participated in the Olympic games.

Where the United States participated in this sports event with 554 athletes, host Brazil (465), Germany (425), China (413), France (399), and Great Britain (366) followed the list with the most number of athletes. Similarly, the country Tuvalu participated in Rio 2016 with just one athlete - Etimoni Timuani who competed in the men's 100 meters race.

Medal Table - Rio Summer Olympics 2016

In Olympics 2016, for the fifth time in last six Summer Olympics, United States topped the medal list with a total of 121 medals that included 46 golds. The United States also achieved a unique feat by winning 1000 Olympic gold medals in all Olympics. When Great Britain and China secured the second and third position in the medal tally, host Brazil got seven gold medals and completed the event at the thirteenth place.

Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Medal Tally
Rank	Countries	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	46	37	38	121
2	Great Britain (GBR)	27	23	17	67
3	China (CHN)	26	18	26	70
4	Russia (RUS)	19	17	19	55
5	Germany (GER)	17	10	15	42
6	Japan (JPN)	12	8	21	41
7	France (FRA)	10	18	14	42
8	South Korea (KOR)	9	3	9	21
9	Italy (ITA)	8	12	8	28
10	Australia (AUS)	8	11	10	29
13	Brazil (BRA) - Host	7	6	6	19
11–86	Remaining Countries	125	149	182	456
Total (86 Countries)		307	306	359	972

Olympics 2016 Closing Ceremony

Olympic 2016 finally observed its closing ceremony on 21st August 2016 at Maracana Stadium. The two-hour 50 minutes closing Olympic ceremony included cultural programs from current host Brazil and the following Olympics 2020 host Japan. The Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach gave the closing remarks and the Olympic flag was officially handed over to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike for Summer Olympics 2020 in Japan. At the end of the Rio Olympics 2016, as per the custom, the Olympics flame was extinguished.

As an Olympic enthusiast, All About Olympics brings all the information about Olympic events in a motto to inspire young sports persons by creating a complete Olympic knowledgebase.