The USA had an incredible Olympics, winning 121 total medals with 46 gold, 37 silver and 38 bronze. China was second with 70 total medals and Great Britain was third with 67 total medals. The USA won 33 total medals in swimming and 32 total medals in track and field. The USA achieved in almost every sport, winning medals in women's and men's boxing, rowing, fencing, men's and women's wrestling, triathlon, weightlifting, diving, judo and skeet shooting.
USA swimming Olympians were dominant, winning 16 gold, 8 silver, 9 bronze. USA swimmer Michael Phelps won 6 medals, 5 gold and 1 silver. Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time! Phelps has won 28 medals in his career with 23 of those gold. Michael Phelps says he definitely is retiring and wont be back for the 2020 Tokyo games. Katie Ledecky of the USA won 4 gold medals and 1 silver medal. Ledecky continues to write and re-write the record book in her swimming events. Simone Manuel was also a star of these games. Manuel won 4 medals total, 2 gold and 2 silver. Maya Dirado won 4 medals total, 2 gold, a silver and a bronze Some other USA swimming stars were Nathan Adrian with 2 bronze and Ryan Murphy who won 3 gold.
The USA was dominant in track and field as well. Allyson Felix now has 6 gold medals and 9 total medals in her career, which is the most of any American female track athlete in US history. Felix won gold in the 4 by 100 relay and 4 by 400 relay and silver in the women's 400. Felix was out leaned by a diving Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas at the finish line. Other stars for the USA in track and field include Jeff Henderson won gold in the long jump. Christian Taylor and Will Claye go 1-2 in the men's triple jump. Tori Bowie wins silver in the women's 100 and bronze in the women's 200. The USA swept the 400 hurdles with Brianna Rollins winning gold, Nia Ali, silver and Kristi Castlin, bronze. It was the first time in Olympic history that American's swept that event. Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs medal in the shot put with Crouser winning gold and Kovacs winning silver. Crouser set an Olympic record. Tianna Bartoletta won gold medals in the long jump and women's 4 by 100 relay. Justin Gatlin won silver in the men's 100 but did not advance to the finals of the men's 200. Other track stars for the USA include Michelle Carter winning gold in the women's shot put, Kerron Clement winning gold in the men's 400 hurdles and Ashton Eaton winning gold in the decathlon, Matthew Centrowitz's gold in the men's 1500 was the first time a USA had won gold in that event since 1908. Jenny Simpson also won bronze in the women's 1500. The men's and women's 3000 steeplechase was successful for the USA as Evan Jager won silver and Emma Coburn won bronze. Galen Rupp won bronze in the men's marathon. The USA 4 by 100 men's relay team was disqualified for passing outside of the zone while the women's 4 by 100 relay team won gold. Both USA men's and women's 4 by 400 relay teams won gold.
Internationally, Usain Bolt of Jamaica with a triple triple(100, 200, 4 by 100 relay gold in 2008, 2012, 2016 Olympic games) cements his legacy on the sport while Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa sets a new world record in the 400 in 43.03 seconds. It was a great performance by van Niekerk who ran out of the outside lane and surprised everyone. Jamaica still dominated the sprints with the worlds fastest woman Elaine Thompson winning gold in the women's 100 and Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce winning bronze in the women's 100. Mo Farah of Great Britain won gold in the 5000 and 10000 in Rio, just like he did in London as he completes the double- double.
The USA women's gymnastics team won team gold for the second straight Olympics and was spectacular. They won the team gold by 8 points over Russia. Simone Biles is probably the best gymnast the USA has ever had winning 4 gold and one bronze in these games. Not too far behind is Aly Raisman with one gold and 2 silver medals. Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian were also great, winning medals on individual events. Gabby Douglas was not able to participate in the women's All-Around. That role went to Simone Biles and Aly Raisman. This team calls themselves the "Final Five" in a tribute to outgoing USA women's gymnastics coordinator Marta Karolyi, who has now retired. Bela and Marta Karolyi have been the head of USA Gymnastics(coaching, coordinator) for over 30 years in Romania and the USA and have built a powerhouse thanks to that ranch in Texas that the Karolyi's own. The Karolyi's will sell the ranch to USA gymnastics in the near future. The men's USA gymnastics team finished 5th in the team event but Danell Leyva won 2 silver medals on individual events and Alex Naddour also won bronze on an individual event.
The USA men's and women's volleyball teams each won a bronze medal. The men's team started out 0-2 in pool play with losses to Canada and Italy before winning 3 straight matches against Mexico, Brazil and Poland. In the semifinals, the USA had a lead on Italy in the 4th set but lost the lead and the 5th set and match to face Russia for the bronze medal. The USA faced a 2 set deficit but came back against Russia, winning the last 3 sets to win the bronze medal.
The women's team won all of their preliminary matches against Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, Serbia, Italy and China. In the quarterfinals the USA beat Japan but in the semifinals, lost to Serbia. The USA had a lead of 12-10 in the 5th set but lost the set 15-13 and the match to Serbia. The USA beat the Netherlands to win bronze. The women's national team will lose Christa Dietzen(Harmotto) and Courtney Thompson as they are both retiring. On the men's side David Lee and Reid Priddy will also retire.
The USA women's beach volleyball team of Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross won a bronze medal and was the only USA beach volleyball team men or women to medal. The loss in the semifinals to Agatha/Barbara of Brazil was hard to watch as the team from Brazil were digging everything. It was a shocking loss as it was Walsh-Jennings first loss in Olympic play. They rebounded with a great match against Brazil's Larissa/Talita to win bronze. Casey Patterson/Jake Gibb were eliminated in pool play as was Lauren Fendrick and Brooke Sweat. Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena went as far as the quarterfinals where they lost a great match to Alison/Bruno Schmidt of Brazil who went on to win the gold medal. Dalhausser/Lucena outlasted a great Italian team of Nicolai/Lupo in 3 sets in a memorable pool play match. Nicolai/Lupo wound up winning silver.
USA diving had a decent showing. Sam Dorman and Michael Hixon won silver in men's 3M springboard synchro and David Boudia and Steele Johnson won silver in men's 10M platform synchro. Boudia won bronze in men's Individual 10M platform.
The USA women's soccer team had a decent tournament until they ran into a great Swedish team. They shut-out New Zealand and France before struggling against Columbia. Columbia tied it in the 90th minute to force the tie. The USA still won their group despite the tie and moved on to play Sweden in the quarterfinals. after 120 minutes of a draw, the USA lost on penalty kicks 4-3 after Christen Press missed her kick over the goal and Sweden made their final shot to send them to the semifinals. In the finals, Sweden lost to Germany 2-1.
The women's and men's basketball teams each won a gold medal. The USA women dominated every opponent while they men's team started out strong but then only won by 3 against Serbia(94-91) and France(100-97). The USA men only won by 6 against Spain(82-76) in the semifinals. The USA men's team defeated Serbia again for gold by 30 points.
In an amazing story of Olympic sprit, American runner Abbey 'D Agostino was tripped and fell along with Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand in a women's 5000 heat. Both helped each other finish the race. 'D Agostino was originally disqualified from the women's 5000 finals but was reinstated. Hamblin was able to compete in the women's 5000 final but 'D Agostino suffered an injury and did not compete in the finals. Both 'D Agostino and Hamblin formed a lifelong friendship.
The biggest controversy at these games was that Ryan Lochte came out in the media the second weekend of these games to say he and 3 other USA swimmers, James Feigen, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz, were robbed at gunpoint. Lochte said they were pulled over by people pretending to be cops and forced to get on the ground, Lochte refused and according to Lochte's original story, a gun was pointed directly at his forehead and he was forced to give the robbers all of their money. When it came out in the media I was shocked and I guess most Americans would believe it because of the high crime rate in Rio. The USOC, at that time, did not confirm that story until hours later. Lochte's mother helped authenticate the story as she told the media what Lochte told her. In the final days of the games the story changed some. Lochte said that the gun was pointed in his direction after they refused to get out of the car. Once the Brazilian authorities started investigating it turns out that there was video of the 4 USA swimmers at a gas station in Rio vandalizing a sign. The Brazilian authorities also accuse the 4 USA swimmers of breaking the restroom mirror and soap dispenser. The Brazilian authorities did point a gun at the swimmers because they tried to get away in a taxi. The store owner were trying to get a settlement from the American swimmers for the damage they caused. The American's paid up to 50 US dollars to the store owners. Ryan Lochte had already left Brazil for the USA when a Brazilian court order was issued to seize Lochte's passport. The athletes were taken off of the plane back to the USA and held for an investigation. James Feigan paid $11,000 dollars to get his passport back and all of the swimmers left Brazil a few days later. Ryan Lochte was suspended by USA swimming until June 30, 2017 while Feigen, Conger and Bentz were suspended by USA swimming until December 31, 2016. All four swimmers will miss an appearance at the White House. Ryan Lochte has agreed to appear on ABC's Dancing with the Stars.
The other controversy at these games was USA soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo who made comments after the tough loss to Sweden on penalty kicks. Solo commented that Sweden played like cowards. Her comments offended USA soccer and her teammates enough that USA soccer suspended her for 6 months and terminated her contract. The union that represents Solo will appeal on her behalf.
Also up to 15,000 Rio Olympics volunteers quit because of long hours and little food. The Rio games had approximately 35,000 volunteers actually working out of the 50,000 Rio organizers started with.
As far as predictions go, I had the order of the first 3 countries correct with the USA, China and Great Britain. The USA won 121 total medals which exceeded my prediction of 98 by 23 total medals. What was surprising was that Great Britain exceeded their medal total of London 2012 by two medals and China underperformed again, only winning 70 total medals, when I predicted they would win 92 total medals. Great Britain won 67 total medals. I got Germany and Russia order wrong as Germany only won 42 total medals while Russia exceeded my prediction of 49 total medals by 7. Russia won 56 total medals. Brazil did not perform as well, only winning 16 medals, well short of the 26 total medals I predicted.
Katie Ledecky won one silver in a relay and my prediction of Ledecky winning gold in every event did not come true. I predicted Michael Phelps winning 4 gold medals, he won 5 gold medals.
In beach volleyball, Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross won bronze instead of at least silver and I predicted Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson to win bronze, they did not medal. I predicted Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena to win at least silver and they did not medal.
I predicted the USA women's volleyball team to win gold when they actually won bronze. I did, however, predict bronze for the USA men's volleyball team.
I did predict that the USA Track And Field Team would win more than 27 medals, they actually won 32 medals. Allyson Felix did not win gold in the women's 400 as I had predicted, she won silver. I did predict correctly that Justin Gatlin would win silver in the men's 100 and Usain Bolt would win gold in the men's 100 and 200. I did predict Justin Gatlin winning silver in the men's 200 but he actually did not even qualify for the 200 finals. I came within .05 of a second in Usain Bolt's winning time in the men'a 100. I predicted 9.76 and he actually ran a 9.81. I did not correctly predict Lashawn Merritt winning silver in the men's 200, he actually won bronze. I did predict correctly that Ashton Eaton would win gold in the decathlon. I incorrectly predicted Tori Bowie would win gold in both the 100 and 200. She actually won silver in the women's 100 and bronze in the women's 200. I did not correctly predict that the USA men's 4 by 100 relay team would win silver. They did finish second but were disqualified for passing outside of the zone. I did correctly predict, however that both the men's and women's 4 by 400 relay teams would win gold.
I correctly predicted the USA women's gymnastics team would win gold and Simone Biles would win gold in all-around. I correctly predicted Simone Biles and Aly Raisman did win gold in Individual events. I was not correct on Gabby Douglas winning a medal in Individual event finals. I was also incorrect in predicting the USA men's gymnastics team would win bronze. They did not medal as a team.
I correctly predicted that Kayla Harrison would medal in Judo and Kim Rhode would medal in shooting. I was incorrect in predicting Jordan Burroughs and Adeline Gray would medal in wrestling.
Predicting Olympic results is difficult as I look at other predictions before I make mine.
Lastly, NBC's opening and closing ceremony coverage was quite bad. Too much editing for commercials and talking over the singing and dancing ruined the opening and closing ceremonies for a lot of viewers who used Twitter and the hashtag NBCfail to complain, that included myself. I was not happy with NBC's opening and closing ceremony coverage. The one hour tape delay of both ceremonies gave NBC a chance to edit for commercials, which disturbed the flow of the ceremonies. The Olympic coverage itself was decent. When NBC would show a basketball game it would be with "limited commercial interruption". Commercials did cut out some of NBC's live Olympic coverage in their indoor and beach volleyball matches but it was only a few points on each side. The next three Olympic games will be tape-delayed. That is understandable considering the time difference between the USA and Asia. There was no excuse for NBC to tape-delay any of the Rio games, especially the opening and closing ceremony.
The color commentators of NBC, whom I enjoy, are knowledgeable and excitable and add to broadcasts. Nastia Luikin did a good job replacing Elfie Schlegel in gymnastics coverage, Sanya Richards Ross, Trey Hardee, Todd Harris and Ato Boldon did a good job in track and field, Cynthia Potter and Laura Wilkinson are very knowledgeable in diving, Rowdy Gaines is very excitable in swimming. Kevin Barnett is very knowledgeable in indoor volleyball and Kevin Wong is very good at color commentating beach volleyball.
The asset of NBC's Olympic coverage is its commentators and not its editing crew. Ratings for this Olympics were the lowest in decades. Blame NBC's editing for some of the declining ratings. A completely live Olympics with "limited commercial interruption" with a presenting sponsor would probably have saved the ratings for NBC. NBC chooses to tape-delay events even when it is live and that thinking is making the viewers turn off their sets in droves. Live streaming of events was a good alternative to watch live coverage if one has complete cable coverage. Maybe by 2018 NBC will get it right, they will because it will be tape-delayed due to a time difference. NBC had a great chance to show a completely live Olympics and blew it. They are living in the past. Well, on to the next games...
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