The Rio 2016 Olympics will live long in the memory for a number of reasons, not least the quotes in lieu of victory and defeat that displayed the athlete's personalities so pertinently.
''There you go, I'm the greatest," were the words of Usain Bolt after winning his ninth gold medal and announcing his retirement from the Olympics.
"Will there be another Michael Phelps? Absolutely not. I'm not even looking. He's too special. It's not even once in a generation - it's maybe once in 10 generations that a Michael Phelps comes along," said Bob Bowman, Phelps' coach, after the swimmer sealed his 23rd gold medal.
"I don't take it as pressure. It is you [the press] who say it. This is one of the best things that has happened in my life. Now [the critics] will have to swallow what they said," Neymar rejoiced in dealing out a slice of humble pie after winning the men's football tournament for Brazil.
"I'm not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps. I'm the first Simone Biles," after breaking onto the scene with her sheer dexterity and winning her own weight in gold medals, 19-year-old Simone Biles marked herself down as her own person.
"The only truth they told was they were drunk," Fernando Veloso, head of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, spoke out about the alleged theft at gunpoint claimed by American swimmer Ryan Lochte, following an altercation at a petrol station.
"I would like there to be a day where there are more of us and it's not 'Simone, the black swimmer,''' gold medalist Simone Manuel said after winning the 100m freestyle.
"I think it's sad that we have people in sports today who are testing positive not only once, but twice, and still having the opportunity to swim at these Games. It breaks my heart and I wish somebody would do something about it," Phelps said in protest regarding the Russian swimmer Yuliya Efimova competing amid a failed drugs test.
"In 1936, the [Nazi Germany] crowd was against Jesse Owens. We've not seen this since. We have to deal with it," French pole-vaulter remarked after being booed for battling Brazil's Thiago Braz Da Silva in the final. He later apologized.
"Perhaps today I paddled with a little bit of Stefan in me," Sebastian Brendel dedicated his 1000m single canoe gold medal to coach Stefan Henze, who died in a car accident during the Games.
"I just proved to them that even after the war, even after we survived a war, if they want something they can have it. If they want to be Olympic champions, they can be. Even if we come from a small country, poor country," were the words of Majlinda Kelmendi after winning Kosovo's first-ever gold medal, coming in the judo.
"I was the black sheep. I was not a priority. The Olympic Committee helped, but not others, and all athletes are equal... I will not name anyone, but I'm sure that if President [Maduro] learns how things were done he'd make some calls to hold them accountable," stated Erwin Maldonado on the difficulties of just making it to the Games from his native Venezuela.
"I would rather lose with you guys than win with any other group of players," Emanuel Ginobili told his teammates after a quarter-final defeat to the USA in the basketball knocked Argentina out, and ended Ginobili's career, as he confirmed his retirement.
"But today, when they jump without me, do you think it's honest? I don't blame them for taking the gold medal, but globally when you compete without me this is not going to be a fully fledged gold medal. Of course I will congratulate the winner, but I'm sure she will not feel it's a real gold because she didn't beat Isinbayeva," after being denied entry to the Olympics with Russia's blanket ban due to doping violations, Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva announced her retirement.
"I get home 20 hours before the first class. So I'll be in physics at 8:30a.m," spoke Virginia Thrasher, the winner of the first gold at the 2016 Games, the 19-year-old having little time to bask in her air rifle gold medal win.
"I'm out. See you later. Yeah. No more. Hanging up the competitive suit. Never putting one of those on again," fittingly, the final word on the Rio Olympics comes from Phelps, as we're left to contemplate if we'll ever see the likes of the record-breaking swimmer, and Bolt, competing again.
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