Date 20 Aug 2016 Tags IOC News , RIO 2016 
 
 Fair Play Awards recognise true Olympic champions in sportsmanship 
 
 The Olympic Games are about more than the win, the medals or the record-setting performances. At their core, the Games are about the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. They are about fair play and human spirit. 
 
 Nobody has epitomised these values more at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 than runners Abbey D’Agostino (USA) and Nikki Hamblin (NZL) and, beyond the Games, the Norwegian men’s handball team. The International Fair Play Committee (CIFP), with the support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), presented them with Fair Play awards today at the Olympic Club in the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro for two separate acts of selflessness and exemplary sportsmanship. 
 
 The D’Agostino and Hamblin story is one of humanity and sacrifice which has already captured the hearts of people across the globe. New Zealand runner Nikki Hamblin tripped and fell to the ground during the 5,000m race, accidentally bringing American D’Agostino down behind her with around 2,000m to go. The 24-year-old D’Agostino was quick to get up again, yet instead of carrying on with her race she stopped to help the stricken Hamblin to her feet, encouraging her to join her in attempting to finish the race. However, during her tumble, D’Agostino suffered an ankle injury, slowing the runner down, but Hamblin sportingly hung back to in return offer her encouragements. The two women went on to complete the race together. 
 
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 Speaking of this recognition after the ceremony, 28-year-old Nikki Hamblin said: “I think it’s very special for both Abbey and myself. I don’t think either of us woke up and thought that that was going to be our day, or our race, or our Olympic Games. Both of us are strong competitors and we wanted to go out there and do our best on the track.” 
 
 She added: “I was on the ground for too long to get back up and catch on to the pack. So then it becomes about finishing the race, and finishing the race well. I am so grateful to Abbey for picking me up, and I think many people would have returned the favour. […] Once you are on the track, there is a mutual understanding of what it takes to get there.” 
 
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 The Norwegian men’s handball team was also honoured for its gracious attitude during a European championship match against Germany earlier this year, which saw them lose out on their Olympic dream. The match was tied when at the last minute the German team scored a goal. It was discovered that when the goal had been scored an extra player had come onto the field. Although the Norwegian team had every right to file a protest, after much deliberation, they finally opted not to contest the results as they felt that the additional player on the field, though illegal, did not partake in the activities that helped the German team score the final goal. Germany went on to qualify for the Olympics, while the Norwegians did not. 
 
 “This is an honour for the Norwegian Handball Federation and for the players,” commented the President of the Norwegian Handball Federation Kaare Geir Lio. “It is also recognition for international handball, of how we want to play, and of how we want to be. We have fair play as a value and keyword in Norwegian handball in addition to respect, amongst others. And those two together are very important for us. This award is very energising and inspiring for us.” 
 
 The trophies were presented by IOC Vice-President and Executive Board Member Nawal El Moutawakel and master of ceremonies CIFP Secretary General Sunil Sabharwal. 
 
 Nawal El Moutawakel said: “The Olympic Games Rio 2016 have reminded all of us of the power and magic of sport. In the past weeks, the athletes have amazed us with their outstanding achievements and performances. We have seen new world records, we have seen high-level performances, we have seen personal bests and we have also seen great emotions. We have also been inspired by great moments of sportsmanship. Athletes are inspirational role models, and it is these moments of fair play that we have come together to celebrate today.” ||||| It was the moment that temporarily stopped the discussions about medal tallies, green pools, drug cheats and world records. 
 
 When Nikki Hamblin and Abbey D'Agostino, two middle distance runners previously unknown to one another, clashed in the 5000m heats and fell to the ground, not many would have given them a second glance. After all, distance track running often involves these stumbles. 
 
 But what happened next became one of the iconic moments of the Rio Olympics, on par with Usain Bolt's triple-triple and Michael Phelps triumphant conclusion to his enormous personal medal tally. 
 
 D'Agostino, quicker to her feet than Hamblin, helped get her off the turf, before she shuffled her way through 4 1/2 laps to finish the race, where Hamblin was waiting for her. D'Agostino had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament, traditionally a 12-month injury. 
 
 The two embraced at the finish line, where D'Agostino was wheeled out as she could no longer walk at all. 
 
 Now, the International Olympic Committee has honoured the two runners by awarding them the Pierre de Coubertin medal. 
 
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 The medal, only awarded 17 times in Olympic history, is reserved for athletes, volunteers or officials who are deemed to have demonstrated the Olympic spirit. 
 
 "Winning this award is overwhelming," said Hamblin. "I am proud that what we did and truly believe that you can be both a competitor and kind and responsive at the same time." 
 
 "Everyone comes here to compete but there are a lot of people who don't achieve that and the journey is really important too. That was one of those journeys and it has gone on to be one of the most important moments of my life." 
 
 "I think it's very special for both Abbey and myself. I don't think either of us woke up and thought that that was going to be our day, or our race, or our Olympic Games. Both of us are strong competitors and we wanted to go out there and do our best on the track. 
 
 "I was on the ground for too long to get back up and catch on to the pack. So then it becomes about finishing the race, and finishing the race well. I am so grateful to Abbey for picking me up, and I think many people would have returned the favour … Once you are on the track, there is a mutual understanding of what it takes to get there." ||||| Jamaica's Usain Bolt greets fans as he celebrates winning gold in the men's 4 x 100-meter relay final, during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Jamaica's Usain Bolt greets fans as he celebrates winning gold in the men's 4 x 100-meter relay final, during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/David Goldman) (Associated Press) 
 
 RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Michael Phelps won more medals than anyone else, again. And then he said farewell, also again. 
 
 Usain Bolt kissed the finish line goodbye after enhancing his Olympic legacy. Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky delivered under the burden of enormous expectations. Two strangers went from rivals to forever-linked by a display of kindness, an entire island seemed to celebrate a tennis match, and a gold medalist scampered home to avoid legal issues after a robbery story unraveled. 
 
 And then the home team won soccer gold. 
 
 The Rio de Janeiro Olympics were not perfect. 
 
 But there were moments — some great, some dreadful and some downright ugly — that will not, and should not, be forgotten. 
 
 Here's a look: 
 
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 MEDAL LEADERS 
 
 The U.S. dominated the medal count, a rare romp in a non-boycotted games. There's still more medals to win Sunday, but the margin of overall victory could be the most in a fully attended games in 68 years. Phelps won six medals, five of them gold, to increase his career haul to 23 Olympic titles and 28 medals overall. Ledecky and Biles each won five medals; Biles will carry the U.S. flag into the closing ceremony. And U.S. shooter Kim Rhode has now won a medal in six consecutive Olympics — and she might not be done. 
 
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 BEST FINISH 
 
 Bolt kissing the finish line after his ninth and final Olympic gold — in nine final races — was a perfect ending. He ran the anchor leg of the 4x100-meter relay for Jamaica, won emphatically to become the third athlete ever with nine golds in track and field, and insists that this will be the end of his Olympic career. 
 
 "Nothing left to prove," Bolt said. 
 
 He's right. 
 
 "I am the greatest," he added. 
 
 Right again. 
 
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 BEST ACT OF SPORTSMANSHIP 
 
 An easy pick. 
 
 In the women's 5,000-meter heat, Abbey D'Agostino of the U.S. and New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin — strangers before that day — were involved in a tumble. D'Agostino helped Hamblin up, encouraging her to finish the race. D'Agostino tore a knee ligament in the fall and obviously couldn't finish. Hamblin wound up finishing last of 17 in the 5,000 final, so neither left with a medal. 
 
 Instead, they got so much more. 
 
 "That girl is the Olympic spirit right there," Hamblin said of D'Agostino. "I've never met her before. Like I never met this girl before. And isn't that just so amazing?" 
 
 Yes, it is. 
 
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 BIGGEST EMBARRASSMENT 
 
 Another easy pick, even in a games where an Egyptian was sent home after failing to shake an Israeli judo opponent's hand. 
 
 Ryan Lochte is a 12-time Olympic medalist, and the odds that he'll have a chance to ever swim for a 13th are as murky as some of the pools were in these Rio Games. Lochte's story that a robber put a gun to his head quickly unraveled, his three teammates who were companions that night all were left to answer legal questions after he scurried home, and more repercussions from the U.S. Olympic Committee are likely coming. 
 
 "It's traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country — with a language barrier," read part of the apology that Lochte released on social media Friday. 
 
 Maybe so, but it bears noting that language barrier or no language barrier, the incident occurred after Lochte left a night out at ... Club France. So it would seem like not all foreign atmospheres struck him as traumatic before now. 
 
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 BREAKOUT STAR 
 
 We asked. You voted. 
 
 Narrowing the list of potential candidates to four — Simone Manuel (four swimming medals), Joseph Schooling (beat Phelps for a gold in the pool), Monica Puig (whose tennis gold was Puerto Rico's first Olympic title in any sport) and Ibtihaj Muhammad (the barrier-breaking fencing medalist) — AP asked its Twitter followers to have a say in deciding this one. 
 
 The response was overwhelming, and one-sided: Puig is the breakout star of these games. 
 
 Reduced to tears many times after draping the Puerto Rican flag across her body after the gold-medal match, Puig beat two of the world's best five players to win the title. 
 
 "To do this ... is everything," Puig said. 
 
 The Olympic ideal, personified. 
 
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 BEST COACH 
 
 Due respect to Mike Krzyzewski, Geno Auriemma, Martha Karolyi and the Japanese wrestling coach who found himself getting body-slammed twice in celebration by women's gold medalist Risako Kawai, this one goes to Ans Botha — the 74-year-old great-grandmother who guided South Africa's Wayde Van Niekerk to Olympic gold and a world record in the men's 400 sprint. 
 
 Her style is simple. When the smile goes away and the voice gets stern, it's time to get serious. Sort of like most great-grandmothers. 
 
 "She's an amazing woman," Van Niekerk said. "Her work ... I think it speaks for itself." 
 
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 BEST COUPLE 
 
 Decathlon champion Ashton Eaton of the U.S. and his wife, heptathlon bronze medalist Brianne Thiesen-Eaton of Canada, would be a very easy selection here. 
 
 But what Kate Richardson-Walsh and Helen Richardson-Walsh did was even more rare. 
 
 They're married, and played for the same gold-medal winning British women's field hockey team. In a games that had more openly gay athletes than ever before, theirs was a moment that surely resonated with many around the world who don't know the first thing about field hockey. 
 
 "To win an Olympic medal is special. To win an Olympic medal with your wife standing next to you ... we will cherish this for the rest of our lives," Kate Richardson-Walsh said. 
 
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 BEST BACK-AND-FORTH 
 
 When the U.S. women's soccer team was ousted by Sweden (and former U.S. coach Pia Sundhage), American goalkeeper Hope Solo raised eyebrows with her assessment of the match. 
 
 But her former coach had the perfect rebuttal. 
 
 "We lost to a bunch of cowards," Solo said. 
 
 "It's OK to be cowards if you win," Sundhage countered. 
 
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 BIGGEST OFF-FIELD STAR 
 
 A tough category, especially after Leslie Jones of "Saturday Night Live" parlayed hilarious Twitter commentary into an invite to Rio. Matthew McConaughey hung out with everyone from the U.S. women's rugby team to Phelps, and Gisele Bundchen's catwalk in the opening ceremony was one not to forget. 
 
 But the pick here is Zac Efron, who flew to Rio just to surprise the U.S. women's gymnastics team — particularly Biles, who doesn't hide her enormous crush on the actor. 
 
 He also saw Bolt and the U.S. men's basketball team, but let's face it, no one is going to ignore invites to hang with Biles and the U.S. gymnasts right now. 
 
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 BEST SPIN 
 
 No one might have been better at their job during the Olympics than Mario Andrada, the spokesman for the Rio Games organizing committee. 
 
 When something went wrong it was his job to explain it — and do so with the world watching and listening. He and International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams held daily hourlong briefings with reporters, and Andrada offered up some quote gems. So we'll go ahead and award his head-scratching statements their own set of medals. 
 
 The bronze: "Numbers mislead," he said, as part of an answer about ticket sales and poor crowds. 
 
 The silver: "Let's give these kids a break," he said of Lochte and his U.S. swimming teammates, after their incident. 
 
 The gold: "Chemistry is not an exact science," he said, talking about why the water at a diving pool went from blue to green. 
 
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 BEST BRAZILIAN MOMENT ... 
 
 Stand up and cheer, City of God. 
 
 One of your own is now an Olympic champion. 
 
 Slums, or favelas, are everywhere in Rio — none more infamous than the City of God, which rose to fame through the 2002 movie of the same name that depicted life in the slum. Rafaela Silva grew up there, and she won gold in judo at these Rio Games. 
 
 Now that's a made-for-Hollywood story. 
 
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 ... THAT IS, UNTIL THIS HAPPENED 
 
 How's this for a storybook ending for Brazil? 
 
 Soccer gold — and in most dramatic style, too. 
 
 Brazil vs. Germany, men's soccer, gold-medal matchup. Neymar gives the hosts a 1-0 lead, but the Germans tie it and ultimately it goes to penalty kicks to decide the Olympic champion. 
 
 Germany makes its first four. 
 
 So does Brazil. 
 
 Then Germany is stopped on its fifth, and the stage is set for Neymar — who else? — to set off a national celebration. His shot sails into the back of the net, Brazil wins and the roar could be heard all over Rio as Neymar collapsed on the field in a quivering mass of joyous tears. 
 
 Forget all the problems these games had. Forget how many Brazilians opposed them in the first place. 
 
 They got their perfect finish to an imperfect Olympics.
– One of the most touching moments of the Rio Olympics has been rewarded with this year's Fair Play Awards. American runner Abbey D'Agostino and New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin, who helped each other finish the race after falling during a women's 5,000-meter heat, were given the awards Saturday night for what the IOC describes as "two separate acts of selflessness and exemplary sportsmanship." D'Agostino, who was accidentally brought down by Hamblin, helped the New Zealand runner to her feet. Hamblin then stayed with her fellow runner when she realized D'Agostino had injured her leg in the fall. "Winning this award is overwhelming," says Hamblin, per the Sydney Morning Herald. "I am proud [at] what we did and truly believe that you can be both a competitor and kind and responsive at the same time," she says. "Everyone comes here to compete, but there are a lot of people who don't achieve that, and the journey is really important, too." The IOC decided to allow both women to compete in the final, though D'Agostino was too injured to take part, the Guardian reports.