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NBC came under fire Sunday night after frustrated viewers took to Twitter to complain about the closing ceremony being aired on an hour delay. Tweets poured in from across the United States as viewers slammed the network for choosing to air the closing ceremony at 8pm, rather than 7pm. Typically, a network will delay a broadcast due to time difference.

Rio said farewell to hosting the Olympics on Sunday as the closing ceremony experienced periods of rain that poured down on the thousands of athletes and spectators in attendance from around the world. The Olympic flame was extinguished at Maracana stadium, signaling that the Rio Games are officially over. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach gave a poignant speech during the ceremony that saw Toyko's new governor, Yuriko Koike, the first woman to hold that job, happily accept the Olympic flag from Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes.

How do you connect the current host of the Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro, and the next, Tokyo? Send in Super Mario, of course — with a little political help. SNIP a video showed Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who announces he won't make it to Rio in time. So Abe turned into the Japanese video game plumber Mario and then popped up in the flesh out of a huge green pipe in the stadium that he allegedly used as a shortcut to get from Tokyo to Rio. SNIP

If Texas was its own country - which, let's be honest, to many of us, it is - it would rank eighth in the 2016 Olympics medal count with 41 total medals. That means the Lone Star State by itself has more medals than all of Canada (22). Countries like Australia (29), Italy (28) and Spain (17) don't want to get into any kind of medal-counting contest with Texas, either. Oh, and host country Brazil (19)? Thanks for all your medals. The 26 gold medals from athletes with Texas ties would rank third, only behind the United States (46) and...

Every satire has a ring of truth... If not for Jamaican Usain Bolt, the United States would've walked home with every gold medal that wasn't nailed down in Rio. USA doubled the score against the rest of the world in nearly every event save for ping-pong. Isn't that great, Mr. President? We've trounced them fair and square. USA doubled the score against the rest of the world in nearly every event save for ping-pong (and that's not satire). "Micro aggression is the term we use in Liberal circles. Now I have no choice except to beg the world to forgive...

South African runner Caster Semenya dominated the women’s 800-meter final Saturday in Rio, finishing well ahead of the competition to take home the gold medal. Semenya is widely believed to be “intersex,” defined by the United Nations as people born with sex characteristics “that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies.” The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last summer suspended International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) rules prohibiting athletes who exceed a testosterone threshold from competing in women’s track and field events, clearing the way for Semenya to compete in Rio. The CAS ruling claimed...

How realistic is it to expect a global event to be entirely detached from global politics? "Two disaffected black athletes from the United States put on a public display of petulance that sparked one of the most unpleasant controversies in Olympics history and turned the high drama of the games into theatre of the absurd." That is how the Time Magazine chose to describe the now iconic scene of Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising black-gloved fists high while standing atop the medal pedestal and refusing to look at the American flag. The year, of course, was 1968. Months earlier,...

 Image from sgvtribune.com When Olympic athletes speak out in favor of "progressive" causes, they make front page news in the United States.  But when a multiple gold medal winner at multiple Olympics speaks in favor of the Second Amendment and self defense, it was the foreign press that covered the issue. Multiple gold medal winner Kim Rhodes spoke out on 5 August in Rio de Janeiro.  From the independent.co.uk: Ms Rhode said she was “becoming more vocal” about her opposition to what she sees as restrictive new gun control measures, including in the context of recent terror attacks. “When...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Geno Auriemma and Diana Taurasi shared a long, emotional embrace. Mission accomplished. The dominant U.S. women's basketball team did what was expected, winning a sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal and doing it in impressive fashion. In yet another rout, the U.S. dismantled Spain 101-72 on Saturday.

The official Olympic medals table doesn’t fully capture participation, which is more reflective of the spirit of the Olympic Games. While it’s natural to celebrate winners, the pathos of losing can be more compelling, and some “losers” who tripped on the way to the podium have exhibited bravery that transcends sports. The official table is medals won, whether ranked by gold medal count or by total medals. I’ve seen some interesting variations: one that adjusts for population; one that tallies points (3 for gold, 2 for silver and 1 for bronze) then divides by a score on human rights, as...

On the way back to the Olympic Village, we pulled into a convenience store to use the restroom. There was no restroom inside, so we foolishly relieved ourselves on the backside of the building behind some bushes. There was a locked door out back and I did not witness anyone breaking it open. I am unsure why, but while we were in that area, Ryan pulled to the ground a framed metal advertisement that was loosely anchored to the brick wall. I then suggested to everyone that we needed to leave the area and we returned to the taxi.

RIO DE JANEIRO (ChurchMilitant.com) - The world's fastest man is Catholic. Before he begins a competition, he says a prayer to The Holy Trinity. He is also devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and is usually seen wearing the miraculous medal, a Catholic devotional medal to Mary.Usain St. Leo Bolt was born in Sherwood Content, Trelawny, Jamaica. Born Catholic, he was given the middle name St. Leo in honor of St. Leo the Great, the 45th pope.Bolt, who competed in this year Olympics, makes the Sign of the Cross before he competes in any race, demonstrating his devotion. He...

Watched NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt last night (Thursday, August 18th). Lester's last segment was on how the USA women were winning more medals than the men in Rio 2016. They showed a variety of photos of different women who have won medals - but I noticed that they didn't include Ginny Thrasher and Kim Rhode, air rifle and skeet shooter respectively, in the segment. They've won medals too -- Gold Medal for Thrasher and 4 or 5 career Olympic medals for Rhode, including one in Rio. The NBC Nightly News website shows last night broadcast, but it does...

Bruna Castro-Ruiz, 28, says she saw part of what unfolded early Sunday at a gas station in Rio, as Lochte and his teammates headed back to the Olympic village. (She says she has already spoken to police about what she saw.) Lochte has said the foursome was robbed at gunpoint after stopping at the gas station on the taxi ride home – an account he has changed slightly from earlier versions given to media. But local police later told PEOPLE that one of the swimmers in the group was seen on security video allegedly damaging a bathroom at the gas...

I have to admit Usain Bolt is an amazing athlete. He looked like a man running against boys in 200 meter final yesterday. Still, his constant showboating turns me off. His total lack of respect for his competitors and post-race antics make me want to gag. I suppose I could stomach those a bit better if he was an American, but I can't say it would greatly change my opinion either. What really chaps my a** is the way NBC and the commentators fall all over this guy. We get these extended segments on him crammed down our throats instead...

There have been numerous articles about the crime of the century that’s only 16 years old. In one, it’s claimed that a crowd of screaming Brazilians, eager to taste American blood surrounded the car he was in, banging on it, apparently on the verge of being a murderous mob, so much so that the harried by the lies of Lochte Rio police had to save him out of a total dedication to law enforcement principles. But oddly, nowhere in the article that contains dozens of photos do we see a murderous mob. Only a mob of reporters surrounding the car...

It took some time, but the United States now has a gold medalist in women's wrestling. And to earn it, Helen Maroulis had to beat a woman who knows a thing or two about gold medals: Japan's Saori Yoshida, a 13-time world champion and three-time reigning Olympic champion. It was a gold medal showdown that the wrestling world had been looking forward to for a long time. Maroulis, the reigning world champion at 55kg, versus Yoshida, the reigning world champion at 53kg. The first period ended with Yoshida leading 1-0 after Maroulis failed to convert when put on the 30-second...

United States Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun released a statement late Thursday night that largely confirmed what Brazilian authorities made public earlier in the day. Ryan Lochte and three of his USA swimming teammates concocted a story about being held up at gunpoint by men posing as police officers while returning to the athletes' Olympic Village early Sunday morning. The USOC apologized to Brazil in the statement and gave more context to the latest news developing in the case. "The behavior of these athletes is not acceptable, nor does it represent the values of Team USA or the conduct of...

Caster Semenya, 25, a South African runner, is tipped to win the 800m But the athlete has ignited a debate about gender at the Olympic Games Semenya has testosterone levels three times the normal level in women She has no womb or ovaries but rather internal testes due to abnormality Of all the stars at Rio, few are as hotly tipped for resounding victory as 800m runner Caster Semenya. Fewer still can match her for controversy. There are those who say she should not be allowed to compete in the Olympics women’s 800m, which she is almost certain to win....

US swimmers Ryan Lochte and James Feigen were indicted by Rio de Janeiro authorities on charges of making a false police report, ABC News reported Thursday. Brazilian police said earlier Thursday that the famous swimmer and his U.S. teammates were not robbed after a night of partying, and that the intoxicated athletes instead vandalized a gas station bathroom and were questioned by armed guards before they paid for the damage and left. The robbery that was or wasn’t has become the biggest spectacle outside of the Olympic venues in Rio, and given American Olympians a black eye in Brazil after...