Generating excitement aplenty on the host city’s most famous beach, the Rio 2016 beach volleyball competitions left the local fans feeling mixed emotions. While Germany’s Kira Walkenhorst and Laura Ludwig beat Brazil’s Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas de Freitas to the women’s gold, home favourites Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt got the better of Italy’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo to win the men’s title.

From 19 to 21 September 2016, under the aegis of the IOC and the Zambian NOC, a forum aimed at training women working in African National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and National Federations to excel as leaders in sports was held in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, with 65 participants from 42 countries taking part.

The USA continued their reign as the kings and queens of Olympic basketball, winning both the men’s and women’s titles at Rio 2016. The American women’s team made it six Olympic golds in a row by defeating Spain in the final, while their male compatriots defeated Serbia to secure their third straight gold.

The Republic of Korea completed the first clean sweep in Olympic archery since the introduction of the team events at Seoul 1988, winning all four golds on offer at Rio 2016, with individual men’s and women’s champions Ku Bonchan and Chang Hyejin claiming two apiece.

The Rio 2016 badminton competition produced medallists from ten countries, with four of the five newly crowned Olympic champions hailing from four different nations, a sign of the sport’s spread across the globe. Taking the respective honours in the men’s and women’s singles events were Carolina Marin of Spain and Chen Long of China.

Argentina’s men and Great Britain’s women enjoyed triumphant runs to the finals of their respective hockey tournaments at Rio 2016 to win their first ever Olympic titles.

Canada’s Rosannagh MacLennan took women’s trampoline gold at Rio 2016 to become the first athlete to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the sport since its introduction to the programme at Sydney 2000. In the men’s competition, meanwhile, Uladzislau Hancharou of Belarus upset the Chinese favourites to scoop gold.

The USA retained their women’s water polo crown at Rio 2016, while world champions Serbia defeated neighbours Croatia to win the men’s title for the first time.

Great Britain’s Andy Murray completed a successful defence of the men’s singles title, while Monica Puig produced a shock in the women’s singles to win Puerto Rico’s first ever Olympic gold medal. Rafael Nadal collected his second Olympic gold as he and Marc Lopez clinched the men’s doubles, while Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia scooped gold in the women’s doubles, and American pair Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock did likewise in the mixed doubles.