Olympics Overnight: Kelsey Mitchell wins one final gold for Canada, American basketball legends Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi win fifth gold medals

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/08/2021 (1882 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rise and shine, Olympic fans. Here’s what you missed overnight and need to know about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this morning.

For all the Star-related Summer Games content, visit our Olympics page here.

That’s a wrap!

After 16 days filled with excitement and emotion, glory and heartbreak, Tokyo will celebrate the end of the Summer Games with a closing ceremony on Sunday before passing the torch to Paris.

The world will likely remember Tokyo 2020 as the first Olympics without spectators, where athletes and organizers were forced to navigate complex restrictions as a deadly pandemic surged outside.

For Canada, Tokyo 2020 will be remembered as a new pinnacle for the country’s athletes, who demonstrated class and grit on their way to a record number of medals. It will be remembered as the year that Canadian women dominated the podium, capped off by a gold on Sunday for cyclist Kelsey Mitchell.

It will be remembered as the Olympics of Maggie Mac Neil, Andre De Grasse, Damian Warner, Kylie Masse and Penny Oleksiak.

And it will be remembered as the year of the cardboard beds.

I kinda miss my cardboard bed🥲

— Justyn Knight (@justyn_knight) August 8, 2021

Scroll through for highlights from the final day in Tokyo. Thanks so much for reading.

The final count

7 gold medals. 6 silver medals. 11 bronze medals.

A brilliant, historic showing by Team Canada, who finished 11th in the official medal count. The 24 total medals are a record for a non-boycotted Summer Games, while the seven golds tied the total won in Barcelona in 1992.

18 of the 24 Canadian medals were won by women — that’s 75 per cent for those keeping track.

The U.S. led the way in Tokyo in terms of both gold medals (39) and total medals (113). That’s three straight Summer Gamses with the most golds for our neighbours to the south, and the seventh straight Games with the biggest total.

China finished in second place with 38 golds and 88 total medals. Japan had 27 golds and 58 total. Great Britain had 22 golds and 65 total, while the Russian Olympic Committee had 20 golds and 71 total medals.

One final golden moment for Canada

Kelsey Mitchell capped off a phenomenal Summer Olympics for Team Canada’s women with a gold medal in the sprint event in track cycling on the final day in Tokyo.

It’s quite a feat for the 27-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alberta, who only took up the sport four years ago, when she was spotted by a Cycling Canada recruiter at the RBC Training Ground in Toronto. Her meteoric rise to the very top of the sport culminated in a decisive victory over Olena Starikova of Ukraine at the Izu Velodrome on Sunday.

The last Canadian to win the event was Lori-Ann Muenzer’s at the 2004 Athens Games.

Check out the race here:

Read more on Mitchell’s gold from the Star’s Dave Feschuk.

Team USA’s basketball dynasty reaches new heights

Was there ever any doubt?

Led by Brittney Griner, who scored 30 points — the most in a gold medal game in women’s Olympics history — the U.S. women’s basketball team cruised past Japan by a final score of 90-75 to win gold.

It’s the team’s seventh straight gold, the longest streak since the U.S. men accomplished the same feat between 1936-68.

The Americans are on a 55-game Olympic winning streak dating back to the bronze medal game of the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Veterans Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi will leave Japan with their FIFTH gold medals. That’s two more than Kevin Durant, for what it’s worth.

While Bird, who is 40, says she will not compete in Paris in 2024, Taurasi hasn’t written it off: “We’ll see,” she told reporters after the game.

Jason Kenny (not that one) becomes Britain’s most decorated Olympian

Kenny — not to be confused with Alberta’s premier Jason Kenney, whose only shot at Olympic glory will require the inclusion of the pancake toss — became Britain’s most decorated Olympian when he defended his keirin title on the final day of track cycling at the Tokyo Games, breaking a tie with Chris Hoy with his seventh gold medal and a stalemate with Bradley Wiggins with his ninth overall.

Meanwhile, Laura Kenny — Jason’s wife — was selected as Team Great Britain’s flag bearer for the closing ceremony.

She claimed her fifth Olympic title and became the first British woman to win gold at three successive Games after victory in the women’s madison alongside Katie Archibald on Friday.

A historic first for India

Neeraj Chopra won India’s first gold medal in Olympic track and field with a throw of 87.58 metres on Saturday to clinch the javelin title at the Tokyo Games.

India’s only previous medals in Olympic track and field were two silvers won by Norman Pritchard in the 200 metres and the 200-metre hurdles at the 1900 Paris Games.

Read more here.

Kenya’s Marathon Man

World record holder Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya became just the third man in history to win back-to-back gold medals in the men’s marathon at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday morning.

At 36 years old, Kipchoge now owns two Olympic gold medals in the marathon, the world record and the only sub-two-hour marathon in history from a world record ineligible exhibition race.

Will he return in 2024?

“I don’t know but I’ll say I’ll still be around,” Kipchoge told reporters. “My mind is actually concentrated on the Olympic Games and things will come on later. But you’ll still see me around.”

Read more here.

Sketchy? Or just extremely clumsy?

French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni knocked over a row of water bottles midrace. Whoops?

Men’s marathon highlights Sapporo’s red light district

The free promotion will be welcomed by the embattled sex industry.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

The Star in Tokyo:

Bruce Arthur: The Tokyo Olympics didn’t implode. That doesn’t mean these Games succeeded. A look back at its highs and lows

Dave Feschuk: Kelsey Mitchell’s ‘one last chance’ in cycling leads to one last gold medal for Canada in Tokyo

Rosie DiManno: Canadian synchronized team is sixth in Tokyo, in an event where the name is one of the few things to change

The Star in Toronto:

Laura Armstrong: Olympic soccer champion Christine Sinclair is golden in her hometown, too

Braydon Holmyard: The internet has come for Team Canada’s Tokyo 2020 jean jackets. What do the athletes think?

Star Editorial Board: Canada’s Olympic athletes give a master class in never giving up

COVID-19 update:

Tokyo reported 4,066 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday — the fifth straight day above 4,000 — as the Olympics were set to wrap up their final day of action in the capital.

Speaking at a news conference held hours before the Olympics closing ceremony, Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo organizing committee, said the Games had seen “no big problems” in the end.

The pandemic still rages, and the Beijing Winter Games are set to open a mere six months from now. And COVID-19 will be one of the issues facing the next scheduled Olympics — the IOC has rejected several recent demands to move the Games from China over allegations of human rights violations.

With files from Star wire services.