The final Olympics medal table and results for the Games
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2.47am BST
Big firework, bigger firework, very big firework ... BIGGEST FIREWORK. And we are done. A joyful end to the Games, once Bach and the suits slunk off. And the ceremony is done. Good night, and thank you for reading. It’s been a fun Games on the sporting side of things, but then again it’s the Olympics - when isn’t it?
2.41am BST
The float has slowed down, if we have to wait until it leaves the stadium before we can call an end to proceedings we’re going to be here for a long time. Ah, good they’ve started the fireworks - always a sign the end is nigh.
2.39am BST
Hooray! The carnival floats have arrived. This may go on for a while. It’s a very large float and it’s moving very slowly.
2.30am BST
More fireworks and a big tree has grown in the middle of the arena. That was a nice way to end things actually. I think the flame has gone out now. If Ryan Lochte is going to turn up, he better get a shift on. Lots of carnival stuff on the stage now with some samba thrown in.
2.27am BST
I really thought we were reaching the end when the dancing vegetation arrived. But I just checked the programme and there’s another quarter of an hour to go. Unless this really is the shared acid trip it looks like and I’m actually back in a bar in Copacabana staring at a plate of broccoli.
2.24am BST
Bach tells us he’s very sad but he has to close the Games now, like we’re five years-old and it’s past our bedtime. Way to patronize the world, Thomas!
2.19am BST
Bach calls the Olympics “a marvelous Games in a marvelous city.” He says the Games will make Rio better after the Games. As a former resident of London before and after the 2012 Games I would say this statement needs to be taken with a VERY LARGE pinch of salt. The people of Rio seem to be on the same page and the round of applause is pretty much non-existent as he rattles out his empty claptrap. There is, however, a big cheer for the volunteers, as there should be.
2.14am BST
Here comes IOC president Thomas Bach to offer some platitudes about sport bringing people together/future is bright/we’ve learned lessons about harmony/children are the future/no boundaries/we are all one people/I’m off to my posh hotel in the special IOC express lane, good luck getting the bus home/ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony on my piano keyboard/power of sport.
2.08am BST
Guzman: “the Brazilian fans have won the gold medal”. That will put them top of the medal table by my calculations. Fix.
2.07am BST
Guzman says he is “proud of his city and his people ... our diversity makes us special ... we will win together”.
2.04am BST
Carlos Arthur Guzman, the head of the Rio Olympic organising committee, is speaking now. Nearly there folks! He describes the Games as a “victory of sport”. Our own Owen Gibson is at the stadium: “Unfortunate scenes as the green pipe through which Super Mario jumped (who turned out to be the Japanese prime minister in disguise) gets stuck in the centre of the field of play as the speeches begin. Several minutes later a gang of stagehands have finally managed to wheel it off.”
2.01am BST
Please let Ryan Lochte put out the Olympic flame by urinating on it.
2.00am BST
Is Super Mario Japanese, Italian or Italian-American then? Bob Hoskins played him in the film and he was English. This is very confusing. The Tokyo 2020 logo is not revealed, with Mount Fuji in the background. That was really good, I have to say.
1.57am BST
The Tokyo instillation has lots of interesting lights. The kind of thing that might be popular at 4am at Burning Man/Glastonbury. The dancing clay people from earlier seem far away now. Still no sign of Ryan Lochte.
1.55am BST
Famous Italian-American plumber Mario (of Super Brothers fame) has turned up and is going to deliver something to Rio. But now he’s turned into Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister. There’s lots of 3D holograms dropping into the stadium now. It’s pretty impressive stuff and is messing with my head slightly. I think Japan may bring an end to the Budget Games era.
1.52am BST
It’s the Japanese bit now as Tokyo says hello in time for the next Games (only three years and 11 months away folks!) Now lots of scenes of Tokyo, reminding us that we have to sit a another two of these ceremonies in four years. But, yes, the video is great and makes me want to go to Japan. Maybe for the Olympics, who knows?
1.51am BST
Thomas Bach lets the governor of Tokyo wave the flag now. This is a new Olympic flag not the one that was marched off by soldiers. If your city pays $8bn it too gets to wave the flag! And now the Japanese national anthem is sung - the second best national anthem behind the French.
1.49am BST
It’s all got to the sententious, pseudo-patriotic part of the ceremony - all that business with the flag, and soldiers marching to a background of stirring choral music, and feeling transported to a weird fascist state where everyone has to love sport or they’re taken outside and shot.
Bet Stella McCartney’s really regretting those flashing shoes right now.
1.48am BST
Something’s happening. I think this is the bit they hand the flag over to the next country to host the Games. Hooray! We’re near the end! There are kids singing. The Olympic flag is being marched off by soldiers - maybe to Japan. Or maybe to prison. Who knows? Maybe a story worth looking into.
1.44am BST
Meanwhile, in Fiji:
So the national stadium is already full and we still have these guys with us! pic.twitter.com/LNr5FTopGL
1.42am BST
As the new members of the IOC athlete’s commission are introduced, including Yelena Isinbayeva, the recently retired Russian pole vaulter who railed against the decision of the IAAF to ban them from the track and field competition over institutionalised doping. She’s now getting in on a selfie with the volunteers. Minutes earlier IAAF president Seb Coe, who oversaw the decision, was dishing out the marathon medals. Thomas Bach, the IOC president who has come under fire for being soft on the Russians, watches on.
1.41am BST
The volunteers are now thanked - and quite right too. These guys work long hours for no financial reward. It sounds corny but the Games really wouldn’t work without them. They even do a little musical skit for us (again, unpaid).
1.38am BST
The marathon runners walk off the podium very slowly. Like people who have just run a marathon.
1.36am BST
Still no sign of Ryan Lochte.
1.32am BST
IAAF president Lord Coe standing very still and taking this drenching like a man. That’s why they pay him the big bucks. Oh wait it’s actually stopped raining now. That’s why Seb’s hair has kept its shape so well. Thought it was all the Olympic Spirit pumping through his follicles.
1.30am BST
We are now shown various highlights from the Games on the big screens int eh stadium. Neymar gets the biggest cheer, closely followed by Usain Bolt. And we also have the medal ceremony for the marathon, which takes place on the final morning and has a bit of a history at the Olympics apparently.
1.26am BST
Some dancers dressed as clay figures - or are they clay figures dressed as dancers? - are now entertaining us with some clay dancing. Clay isn’t good in the rain, right? They take people off at the French Open when it rains. You can hurt your knees and stuff. Let’s hope those little clay guys are OK out there. Stay safe clay people!
Here’s Emma John: “In keeping with the overall theme of attendance at these Olympics, even the ATHLETES’ seating in the centre of the arena is at least a quarter empty! They’ve clearly put out way too many chairs, like an optimistic amateur pianist at a recital they organised themselves.”
1.20am BST
We’ve now reached the “lacemaking” stage of the evening. I’ll be honest, this is the bit I was most ready to laugh at when I read it in the programme. But it’s actually the most powerful segment so far: really moving and empassioned singing from a group of traditional singers from Salvador and accompanied by a rather lovely and hypnotic light show. It’s got the biggest response of the evening so far in the stadium.
1.19am BST
We’ve gone back from the invention of techno in the 1980s to the history of lace in 19th century Brazil now. Lace is really good for projecting on to arena floors because of all the geometric shapes. It is also a reference that people like to stare at geometric shapes at the end of a night out at a techno club.
1.17am BST
Ryan Lochte is still not here.
1.13am BST
In our tour through history, techno has just been invented so we’ve zoomed up from pre-history to 1988. This is good news. And now dancers spell out “Rio 2016”, they’ve skipped the mesozoic era completely. Shoddy. On a more serious note, Dennis Warren emails in: “This prehistoric bit is to celebrate the Capivara national park, which has the largest collection of prehistoric art in Latin America. It’s just had its fundng stopped by the interim government.”
1.12am BST
Not good news for people who wanted an early night. We are now exploring Brazil’s history, starting in PREHISTORIC times. Which lasted ages - like 14 years or something. Dan Lucas on the strong Canadian presence: “This is like the third act of the South Park movie, only with worse music.”
1.10am BST
Fireworks! That means the athletes are all here. Or if they’re not, they can wait out in the car park. There is a little song now to introduce the exciting news that YouTube now has an Olympic channel or some such nonsense. Admit it: no one is interested in the Olympics until they start, then everyone is. And then no one is again.
1.07am BST
The Canadians keep on coming? Who knew there were so many Canadian athletes in the world?
1.05am BST
That undulation of noise you hear in the stadium is not for the emergence of the Brazilian team but for the first Mexican wave breaking in the stadium. The torchlight of a few hundred scattered mobile phones is making it all rather romantic. Maybe the organising committee should have just crowd-sourced the whole show. Not every athlete can be accommodated on the seats on the floor of the arena, by the way. Many are being hived off to sections of the stands, and I suspect any disappointment at not being centre stage has quickly been replaced by relief at being out of the rain for the next hour of this stuff.
12.59am BST
Ryan Lochte still yet to show.
12.58am BST
There seem to be a lot more Canadians than I remember actually competing at the Games. The Canadians are everywhere, and wearing mittens. The Japanese are starting to file in too: a reminder that Tokyo will be our next hosts.
12.53am BST
The only saving grace of the athlete’s parade at the closing ceremony is that it’s not as long as the athlete’s parade at the opening ceremony. Team GB are wearing rather natty trainers that flash red, white and blue. They’re basically the ones that my seven-year-old son keeps nagging me for. It’s possible they might have wheels in the heel as well.
12.51am BST
Remember when we thought athletes would go down vomiting as soon as soon as they entered the water? Not one marathon swimmer was eaten by a radioactive mutant fish, not one sailor was sunk by a dog carcass. All very disappointing:
Related: What's in the water? Pollution fears taint Rio's picturesque bay ahead of Olympics
12.48am BST
My sojourn to the bathroom has made me think about the interesting signs I’ve seen on my trip to Rio. The trigger for this was the one in the toilets, ubiquitous here, asking us to put our used toilet paper ANYWHERE but in the actual toilet (plumbing concerns). I’ve also enjoyed the official notice as you go through security screening, listing prohibited items. These include guns and “white weapons”, which, it turns out, are not those pieces of dragon glass with which you defend yourself from invaders north of The Wall, but anything that’s not a gun and can feasibly used as a weapon. Including, apparently, sharpened sticks and umbrellas. There’s also a great sign in our hotel above the reception desk that informs its guests that “We are not a sexual tourism industry”. This may be why I got such filthy looks when a colleague from another paper stopped by for a nightcap at 2am this week. Sports journalists are of course easily mistaken for gigolos.
12.43am BST
The rain has picked up again. The ponchos are out for the athletes. In the meantime, here’s the best pictures from Saturday’s action:
Related: Bolt's Olympic farewell and Muhammad's Olympic heartbreak: Rio 2016, day 14 – in pictures
12.40am BST
Ryan Lochte is not at the closing ceremony.
12.34am BST
Ugly scenes as the modern pentathletes clash with the archers about eating the last of the cereal this morning at the athletes village. Good news: the archers didn’t bring their bows. The bad news: the modern pentathletes brought their horses, guns and epees. This could get messy.
12.31am BST
Apparently it will take 15 minutes for the athletes to come in. They’re walking very slowly. And these people are supposed to be fit.
12.30am BST
Lots of very fit, attractive people continue to come into the arena and sit down on small plastic seats. No sign of this guy yet, I guess the rain could mess with the oil.
12.26am BST
Sam Adams emails in with some sporting thoughts: All those empty seats, sounds terrible. While the sport wins through, this has still got to be the most disappointing Olympics since ... 1980?”
12.23am BST
Hang on, is that ... His dad would have done well in the golf (NOTE: we know that’s an urban myth)
12.18am BST
Just for the excuse to send one last liveblog update on the subject, sad to report there are quite a number of empty seats on the lower tier (which might well have something to do with the relatively high ticket prices). Or maybe it’s a post modern tribute to the empty seats elsewhere during the Games.
12.17am BST
An actress is on to represent the legendary Brazilian singer/actress/dancer/all round talent Carmen Miranda. And what should happen after a woman with some fruit on her head does some dancing? Why, world-class athletes should turn up. In they come, not in teams but together to represent unity and all that stuff they talk about in Olympic speeches.
12.14am BST
Time for the national anthem of Brazil. Sung by kids from every Brazilian state, and very good singers they are too. Before that we had samba legend Martinho da Vila performing with his daughters and granddaughter. The Brazilian flag is projected on the floor and gets a big roar, understandable in an arena full of Brazilians. Also: the Brazilian national anthem is really long, much longer than the two verses they trot out at the start of football games.
12.07am BST
The dancers have not formed a cable car and are moving up Sugarloaf mountain. A Sugarloaf mountain made up of other dancers. Basically, there are a lot of dancers and lots of monuments made out of dancers. Dancers everywhere, you can’t move for them. Emma John at the stadium says: “Honestly the crowd is loving this. Every time the dancers reformed one of the famous Rio landmarks there was a massive roar. Sugarloaf mountain got the biggest, which was nice because to the rest of us it just looked like some of the cast had got lost.”
12.05am BST
Dancers emerge and amid much drumming and merry making form the shape of Christ the Redeemer. This pretty much screams Brazil at the moment. And very enjoyable it is too.
12.03am BST
And we’re off! The rain is dying away at the Maracaña. A clock is projected on to the arena floor and we count down towards the start of the, um, end of the Games. There are fireworks. There must be fireworks at closing ceremonies. “Who is the guy in the hat, you ask? Why, it’s Santos Dumont, creator of the first controllable aircraft with an engine. Nobody mentions the Wright Brothers in Brazil,” says Emma John.
11.59pm BST
There are some crowd noises now. Some dancers - or at least people in orange costumes - have emerged from a vomitory and are lined up by the stage.
The big screen is announcing “3 minutes para o inicio do show”, which is the only thing it’s projected in the last two hours.
11.57pm BST
The superb Paul Connolly in Melbourne has written a summary of Australia’s Games, in which he explores whether this is the end of the Aussies punching above their weight at the Games.
Related: Australia's well-planned, well-funded Olympic over-achievement is finished | Paul Connolly
11.55pm BST
Kevin Smith emails in with his thoughts on the medal tables: I have to say, my preference is for the Medals per Capita version of the table. Grenada ends up the winner instead, with 1 medal per 106,825 people. Great Britain is down in 19th (1 per 986,942), and the US a paltry 40th (1 per 2,770,851). Alternatively there’s the weighted medals per team size, in which Tajikstan is the winner, having a total of 4 (where gold = 4, silver = 2, bronze = 1) from a team of just 7 athletes. Great Britain would thus be 6th, 169 from 366 athletes, and the US an admittedly astonishing 2nd (282 from 554, tied with Kosovo and Jordan, both of whom had 4 from 8).
11.50pm BST
For what it’s worth, my favourite moment of the Games was Usain Bolt and Andre de Grasse grinning at each other as they crossed the line in the 200m. It summed up the joy as well as awesome talent Bolt has brought to the Games down the years, and also involved the man who may well double up in the 100m and 200m at the next Games. Please do send me your highlights, the best wins a small prize. An imaginary prize.
11.44pm BST
The main fashion choice for the athletes tonight is likely to be the poncho:
Safe marching all !!!! #closingceromamy #Rio2016 #storm #TeamGB #Hockey @_GBHockey @Rio2016_en @FIH_Hockey @TeamGB pic.twitter.com/3guHRTMrGW
11.39pm BST
Just a little reminder that you can see the final medal table here, with
Michael Phelps
USA topping the results. Great Britain finish second and China third. Or that is as long as you decide things by total golds, as they do in Britain. In the US it’s total medals, which makes China second. Whichever, way you spin it USA won and countries such as Jordan, Fiji and Singapore won their first ever golds.
Related: Rio Olympics 2016 – medal table and results in full
11.27pm BST
So while the rest of you are watching sporting highlights, we in the stadium have an announcer singing to us. I think we may be supposed to sing along. The words appear to be “Denanananananana.” It’s a bit like listening to a mum trying to get her kids to play nicely and stop crying, except she has a microphone.
Stage is set for the #ClosingCeremony for #Rio2016 ... Very wet and windy... Expect to see some soggy performers! pic.twitter.com/vux16LVMza
11.24pm BST
Simone Biles will be USA’s holder-in-chief. I’d say at 4ft 9in she’s a little small to be carrying a huge flag but she’s proved fairly well over the last few weeks that she has a bit of strength. Canada will be led in by swimmer Penny Oleksiak, who won four medals - and one gold - at these Games. Oh, and she only just turned 16. Britain’s Kate Richardson-Walsh will bring in the Union Jack, after her gold in hockey. Gold medal rower Kim Brennan will represent Australia.
Related: Rio 2016: Kim Brennan rises above sinking feeling to claim golden moment | Jonathan Horn
11.12pm BST
It’s not just the rain that’s causing a bit of discomfort at the ceremony, there’s a strong wind at the Maracaña too. That wind will be bound to cause a problem when Pele parachutes out of a helicopter to extinguish the Olympic flame with a giant fire extinguisher. Fun fact: the giant fire extinguisher is filled with tears of joy from every winning athlete.
11.05pm BST
Some news from the Maracaña where the weather is ... not good. Here’s our own Owen Gibson at the stadium:
“It’s absolutely hosing down at the Maracana, which is bad news for the athletes who will be expected to sit on plastic seats on the infield. The good news for the rest of us is the roof at the Maracana, expensively rebuilt from scratch for the 2014 World Cup, actually works - unlike the one at the athletics stadium. As we wait for things to get underway, we’re being treated to some disco lighting and some lounge jazz.”
10.29pm BST
The closing ceremony starts at 8pm Rio time (7pm ET/midnight BST/9am AEST), and is set to last around four hours (four hours, really? No one would mind if it was only two and they could save a load of money). Anyway, four hours it is. Tom Will be here from around 7pm Rio time (OK, maybe 7.30pm) but in the meantime, here’s a few highlights from the final day in Brazil:
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