Rio Olympics draw to close with dazzling closing ceremony

NEW YORK

After two weeks of international sporting bonanza, the first Olympics in South America came to an end Sunday with a magnificent closing ceremony that passed the baton to Tokyo for the next Games in 2020.

The ceremony at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janerio, which kicked off under a rainstorm, was a display of the Olympic spirit merged with Brazilian culture and diversity into a dazzling spectacle that saw off the games to their mystical dwelling place for another four years.

Music and dancing roused thousands of spectators and athletes, hailed as “Heroes of the Games” as they entered the stadium in a long parade wrapped in rain covers.

Carlos Arthur Guzman, the head of the Rio Olympic organizing committee said the games were a “victory of sport” and “the Brazilian fans have won the gold medal”, while International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach called the Olympics “a marvelous Games in a marvelous city” and thanked Rio.

The Olympic flag was then transferred from Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes to Bach, who handed it to Tokyo’s newly-minted Gov. Yuriko Koike, who on Aug. 2 assumed office.

After Koike formally accepted the flag, a video clip promoting Tokyo Games cut in, showing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stuck in traffic in Tokyo trying to arrive in time for the closing ceremony. Abe then transformed into legendary video game character Super Mario the plumber, who jumped into one of his landmark green pipelines and dug a tunnel that cut through the entire Planet Earth coming out on the other side in Rio as the real Abe appeared in the middle of the Maracana to deliver Japan’s rising sun, source of the national flag’s symbolism.

The flame in the Olympic cauldron, burning against a kinetic sculpture that represented the sun, was extinguished by a shower as Mariene de Castro sang “nothing will remain the way it is now”, part of the song entitled, Pelo Tempo Que Durar which translates into As Long As It Goes.

When the flames were gone and the sculpture stopped, a big thee sprouted in the middle of the arena as fireworks took off and carnival floats entered the stadium, bringing fans and athletes to their feet for the final samba of the Games, during which 87 countries won medals.

Usain Bolt, known for his flamboyant style and fun-loving personality, did not attend the ceremony after he took an early exit to fly home to Jamaica. Aug. 21 is Bolt's 30th birthday.

Perhaps the biggest name missing from the closing ceremony was that of Pele. The football legend passed on participating in the opening ceremony due to health problems and later tweeted that he hoped to be well enough to make it to the end of the games. But organizers said Friday that the biggest name in Brazilian sports would not attend the closing ceremony. Though no reason was given, Pele has been rehabilitating from a hip surgery at the end of last year.

Another glaring absence was that of Brazil's leaders. Unpopular interim President Michel Temer and President Dilma Rouseff, the suspended president whom he replaced, were nowhere to be seen. Temer was booed at the opening ceremony, for which Rouseff declined the invitation.