Japan breaks new ground while playing to strengths in Paris

Well done to all - medallists or not. They all put on a great show.

There was one "expert" on here a week ago making a claim that Japan "was heading to their worst ever Olympic medal tally". I laughed at the time - corrected them of course - and am still chuckling!

Uta Abe was the most visible and heartbreaking failure, as the 24-year-old missed the chance to defend her title on the same day as her brother Hifumi managed the feat.

A childish tantrum for not getting her own way is not "heartbreaking", it's an embarrassment.

Good job Nippon and congratulations for all your hard work, next stop LA 28. Let's go past quarter finals in soccer, volleyball etc.

With 20 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze, Japan finished behind only the United States and China on the medal table. The two Olympic powerhouses tied with 40 gold, but the Stars and Stripes ended up on top thanks to having more silver.

Please, Japan was 3rd in gold, but overall over 80 medals less than the US.

Gold medals alone are NOT the only measure of success in the Olympics!

Good job Nippon and congratulations for all your hard work, next stop LA 28. 

Lol! Next "stop" is in 2026 in Italy!

In some other high-profile sports, Japan also struck out, with the men's and women's volleyball teams failing to meet expectations, as did the defending silver medalist women's basketball team that lost all of its games.

Both football teams went out in the last eight to eventual winners, Spain in the men's and the United States in the women's, while there was no swimming gold for the first time since the 2012 London Games.

Japan's ball-teams crashed out in this Olympics

Swimmer Rikako Ikee isn't the same since recovering from leukemia

Nice, but also very useless for most of the people. Despite a few involved in that money circus, no one of us can pay bills or the supermarket carts with whatever many gold or other Olympic medals won. Even some or many of those winners have problems afterwards, when the money is spent, new participations are not in sight anymore or the career is only based on sports and over after a few years. Only very few have some merits and a stable income generated by that Olympic spectacle.

Gold medals alone are NOT the only measure of success in the Olympics!

Yeah, one is supposed to get as many of its participants on the podium as possible

It shows they're also being competitive and not just filling out the participation numbers

I mean, theoretically a country can field 500 participants, but win zero medals. Meaning, they're helping their participants enough to qualify, but not helping them enough to be competitive. So they're doing just the bare minimum of effort to help their participants

Considering Russia is no longer able to take part in the Olympics, it's easy to see where the 'unprecedented success' is coming from

Considering Russia is no longer able to take part in the Olympics, it's easy to see where the 'unprecedented success' is coming from

That’s correct. By removing the country that was running a state sponsored doping program to cheat at the Olympics, the competition has become fair for everyone else again.

Just another of the reasons that Russia is hated by the people in the world that matter.

Congratulations Team Japan. I enjoyed your efforts

It was exciting to see Japan rise from 7th place in gold to 3rd. I'm really surprised and happy to see them run up such a total. Good event for all countries in an interesting Olympics.

Well done Japan, keep winning more medals..

Considering Russia is no longer able to take part in the Olympics, it's easy to see where the 'unprecedented success' is coming from

https://giphy.com/gifs/LOWLIVES-i-dont-like-you-idontlikeyou-lowlives-Wiy6mt9DiYJe3r1YnZ

https://giphy.com/gifs/LOWLIVES-i-dont-like-you-idontlikeyou-lowlives-Wiy6mt9DiYJe3r1YnZ

Please read my post one more time, I'm just stating that there are more winnable medals since Russia isn't in the Olympics anymore.

You didn't need to send a gif of yourself crying.