Brazil Delivered When It Mattered Most

(ATR) The Brazilian men’s volleyball knocked off Italy in straight sets at the Maracanãzinho to give the host nation its seventh gold medal of the Games on Sunday afternoon.

With the dramatic men’s football victory over Germany in front of 80,000 passionate, screaming fans on Saturday night at the venerable Maracanã, the Brazilians have delivered in events with the highest priority to the South American nation.

A Hollywood producer couldn’t have scripted the conclusion any better as Brazil’s biggest celebrity Neymar sent the nation into euphoria finding the back of the net converting on a pressure-packed penalty kick and giving the football mad nation its first Olympic gold medal in its beloved sport.

Add men’s beach volleyball gold fromAlison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidtat Copacabana to the two aforementioned victories, and undoubtedly it has been a prosperous Games for the home team, thrilling proud Brazilians from Boa Vista to Porto Alegre.

In total, Brazil has amassed 19 medals – six silver and six bronze to go along with the seven gold. The host country nearly reached its ambitious goal of finishing among the top 10 nations in the medal count. The 19 medals leaves the host nation 13th.

"Now this last day of competition, we can say that Brazil had in Rio its best performance in the Olympics," said Sports Minister Leonardo Picciani at a news conference.

"Here in Rio we had 465 Brazilian athletes participating in the Games, against 259 in London (2012 ) and 277 in Beijing (2008)."

According to Picciani,individual sponsorship programs of athletes by the Federal Government are one of the reasons for the great results in Rio.He confirmed that the programs will stay in place for the next Olympic cycle.

Other gold medal performances were contributed by Rio’s own Rafaela Silva in women’s judo, Thiago Braz da Silva in the men’s pole vault, Robson Conceicao in men’s boxing and the duo of Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze in sailing’s 49er FX women’s class.

Rafaela Silva, 24, who grew up in Rio’s notorious Cicade de Deus favela, inspired the city and country winning Brazil’s first gold medal on August 6th, demonstrating that sport can be a powerful tool for social change.

Da Silva, 22, upset French favorite and defending Olympoc pole vault gold medalist Renaud Lavillenie when he soared over a Games record of 5.93 on his third and final attempt to steal gold.

Conceicao fought his way to victory in the men’s lightweight class to give Brazil its first ever Olympic boxing gold medal.

Martine Grael and Kahena Kunzewon sailing gold for Brazil, coming from behind to score a dramatic victory over New Zealand's Alex Maloney and Molly Meech at the Marina da Gloria sailing venue.

Written by Brian Pinelliin Rio de Janeiro

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