The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics may be drawing to a close after two weeks of memorable competitions, but there is one more party to throw.The closing ceremony takes place on Sunday, and coverage will start on NBC at 8 p.m. ET, per Sports Media Watch. The event will take place at the Maracana Stadium and will also be available for live streaming at NBCOlympics.com.It will give fans one last chance to see their favorite Olympians in Rio and the host city a final occasion to send the world off with a positive, lasting memory of the 2016 Games.According to the Rio Games official website, the closing ceremony "will be a new opportunity to celebrate Rio de Janeiro and Brazil, with that special feeling of looking back at the Games best moments and handing over the Olympic flag to Tokyo, next host of the Games in 2020."There figures to be plenty of performances during the closing ceremony, but the Telegraphnoted many of the details have been kept as "a closely guarded secret." There will be the traditional speeches and the extinguishing of the Olympic flame after the torch is symbolically passed to representatives of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.One person who may make an appearance during the ceremony is Brazilian soccer legend Pele.NBCOlympics.com said he "was the preferred choice of organizers to light the cauldron" during the opening ceremony but couldnt make it because of his health. Brazilian marathoner Vanderlei de Lima lit the cauldron instead. Pele himself said he wants to be at Sundays celebration:All the performances arent secret, however, as Billboard reported musician Kygo will be part of the festivities. Billboard said he will perform his single "Carry Me" alongside vocalist Julia Michaels during the closing ceremony. Kygo said the chance to play at the Olympics "is a huge milestone in my career," per Billboard.While the closing ceremony will surely have a festive atmosphere, Kygo will help close out an Olympics that wasnt always smooth.Ben Ashford of the Daily Mail chronicled a number of the problems, including the fact athletes "arrived to find much of their accommodation was unfinished with many taking to social media to post images of leaky sinks, wonky tiles and loose electrical sockets." Whats more, the diving pool appeared to turn green and smelled, which caused its temporary closure.There were also some dangerous incidents at the Games, and "at least seven people, including an 11-year-old girl, were injured when an overhead television camera came crashing down on them in the Olympic Park," per Ashford.What's more, the Ryan Lochte saga dominated headlines in the latter half of the Games. Lochte initially alleged he and some of his swimming teammates were robbed at gunpoint in Rio, but Matt Gutman of ABC cited sources who said the story was "fabricated," while video showed Lochte "'fighting' with security at [a] gas station."Lochte's teammates, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, were reportedly taken off their plane home by authorities before it took off, per Peter Alexander of NBC News.SportsCenternoted Lochte's teammates also told police the story was made up by the 12-time medalist, and Lochte issued an apology for the ordeal on Twitter.Despite the issues, there were also plenty of memorable performances at the Games, especially for American audiences who watched their country win the most medals and sit atop the leaderboard for essentially the entire Olympics.Swimmer Katie Ledecky was a force in the pool with four gold medals (200-meter freestyle, 800-meter freestyle, 400-meter freestyle and 4x200-meter freestyle relay) and a silver (4x100-meter freestyle relay). Her showing in the 800-meter freestyle was almost laughably good as she beat the rest of the field by more than 11 seconds with a world-record time of eight minutes, 4.79 seconds.Elsewhere, Michael Phelps cemented his legacy as one of the best Olympians in history with five more golds (4x200-meter freestyle relay, 200-meter butterfly, 4x100-meter medley relay, 4x100-meter freestyle relay and 200-meter individual medley) and a silver (100-meter butterfly) in Rio.Not even he can measure up to his 28 overall medals and 23 gold medals from his career:The United States womens gymnastics team of Simone Biles, Laurie Hernandez, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and Madison Kocian also became household names as they won gold in the team competition.Biles in particular was incredible with gold medals in the team, individual all-around, floor exercise and vault, as well as a bronze in the beam. Raisman won silver in the floor and individual all-around, Hernandez captured silver in the beam and Kocian earned silver in the uneven bars.The American stars werent the only ones to shine in Rio. Jamaicas Usain Bolt can make a case right alongside Phelps as the best Olympian of all time after he won the 100-meter sprint once again, this time at 9.81 seconds. He became the first athlete to do so in three different Games:Bolt also won the 200-meter race on Thursday and the 4x100-meter relay on Friday.The legendary performances of Bolt and Phelps have defined this generation of Summer Olympics, but the retiring stars will not compete in Tokyo during the 2020 Games. Sundays closing ceremony will pass the torch to the next generation of athletes as they set their sights on Tokyo.
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