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| Fireworks goes off after the Olympic flame was extinguished during the closing ceremony for the 2016 Summer Olympics in the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday. Olympics chief Thomas Bach hailed a "marvellous" Games in the Brazilian city as Tokyo took up the baton promising to host the best Olympics yet in 2020. / AP-Yonhap |
South Korea finishes 8th with 9 gold medals
By Baek Byung-yeul
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During the ceremony, the Olympic flame was extinguished and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes returned the Olympic flag to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach. The flag was then handed over to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also made a sudden appearance, dressed as the famous video game character Super Mario.
During the quadrennial global extravaganza, 11,000 athletes competed under 207 different flags for 306 gold medals. The United States topped the gold medal standings for the second consecutive Olympics following the 2012 London Olympics with 46 gold, 37 silver and 38 bronze.
South Korea finished eighth in the gold medal tally with nine gold, three silver and nine bronze. Though the country failed to reach its goal of at least 10 gold medals, it completed another goal which was to finish in the top 10.
Britain, which ranked third four years ago, climbed to second place with 27 gold, 23 silver and 17 bronze, while China, which bagged 38 gold medals in 2012, ended a little short of expectations with 26 gold, 18 silver and 26 bronze to place third.
Brazil ranked 13th with seven gold, six silver and six bronze, while North Korea took 34th place with two gold, three silver and two bronze.
Among the 21 medals South Korea won, archery and taekwondo contributed the most.
In archery, South Korea completed an unprecedented sweep winning four gold medals in the event including the two individual and the men's and women's matches.
Ever since the team competition was first introduced in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, South Korea came close in 1988, 2000, 2004 and 2012, winning three gold medals each, but this was first time for the country to snatch all of them.
After Cha Dong-min claimed a bronze in taekwondo in the men's 80 kg class Saturday, all five South Korean taekwondo fighters won a medal in Rio with two gold — Kim So-hui and Oh Hye-ri in the women's 49 kg and 67 kg classes — and three bronze including Kim Tae-hoon and Lee Dae-hoon in the men's 58 kg and 68 kg classes. This was a much improved result compared with the 2012 London Olympics where the country only garnered one gold and one silver.
In contrast, judokas and wrestlers fell short of expectations. Two silver and one bronze were won in judo to put South Korea winless in the event for the first time in 16 years while only one bronze was won in wrestling.
In shooting, Jin Jong-oh won a gold in the men's 50-meter pistol to become the first shooter, male or female, to win a single event in three consecutive Olympics.
The first Olympic gold medal in the women's golf in 116 years went to LPGA star Park In-bee.
Unexpected news also came from Rio as former Olympic table tennis champion Ryu Seung-min won the second most votes in his run to be one of the four new IOC's Athletes Commission members, Thursday.
Among 23 candidates, Ryu earned 1,544 votes from athletes competing in the Rio Olympics. During his eight-year term as an IOC member, Ryu will contribute to the world sports community including casting his ballot to decide the host country of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
