Rio 2016: Recap of the Summer Olympics

In case you were living under a rock Aug. 5–21, the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics happened. The Summer Games are now entering a four-year hibernation before going to Tokyo in 2020. The United States, as usual, swept the floor winning 121 overall medals, 46 gold, 37 silver and 38 bronze. Great Britain came in second place winning 67 overall medals.

Here are some of the most memorable moments from this year’s Olympics.

Aside from Ryan Lochte’s “robbery” fable, American swimmers dominated Rio. Swimmer Katie Ledecky broke her own world record to win the women’s 800-meter freestyle final in eight minutes, 4.79 seconds, finishing 12 seconds ahead of everyone else. Ledecky took home gold in the women’s 200-meter freestyle, the 400-meter freestyle and the 4×200 freestyle relay — she’s only 19. Ledecky’s teammate, Simone Manuel, is the first African-American woman to win an individual gold in the 100-meter freestyle. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian, won gold in the men’s 200-meter butterfly final.

Usain Bolt won the 100-, 200- and 4×100-meter relay for the third consecutive Olympics. With nine gold medals in 10 career Olympic events, he is now tied with American Carl Lewis.

Nineteen-year-old U.S. gymnast Simone Biles won the women’s all-around Olympic gold medal, taking home four gold and one bronze medal.

Michelle Carter became the first American woman to win gold for shot put.

The first world record inside the Olympic Stadium went to Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana, who won the gold in the women’s 10,000-meter, beating the previous record by more than 14 seconds.

Rami Anis, a swimmer who fled Syria in 2015, earned a standing ovation after seeing a personal best in the men’s 100-meter freestyle; sometimes it’s not all about winning.

Fiji celebrated their country’s first-ever Olympic medal, after beating Great Britain 43-7 in rugby.

Brazil defeated Germany, winning the Olympic gold medal in the World Cup soccer match.

True Olympic spirit was alive when New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin and USA’s Abbey D’Agostino helped each other up, after colliding into each other in the 5000-meter race. D’Agostino tore her knee ligament in the incident but both runners insisted on finishing the race.

After the competition, came the closing ceremony full of music, dancing, color and the Spice Girls.