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?
Rio 2016 Olympics closing ceremony: Super Mario and samba – as it happened
This article is more than 8 years old
Updated
Live feed
Key events
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Thomas Bach gives the kind of paternalistic, patronising speech the IOC is famous for
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.
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.
Guzman: “the Brazilian fans have won the gold medal”. That will put them top of the medal table by my calculations. Fix.
Guzman says he is “proud of his city and his people ... our diversity makes us special ... we will win together”.
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.”
Please let Ryan Lochte put out the Olympic flame by urinating on it.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Meanwhile, in Fiji:
So the national stadium is already full and we still have these guys with us! pic.twitter.com/LNr5FTopGL
— Ben Ryan Fiji 7s (@benjaminryan) August 21, 2016
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.
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).
The marathon runners walk off the podium very slowly. Like people who have just run a marathon.
Still no sign of Ryan Lochte.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Ryan Lochte is still not here.
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.”
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.”
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.
The Canadians keep on coming? Who knew there were so many Canadian athletes in the world?
Explore more on these topics
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion