The Olympic Games have drawn to a close and members of Team TTO are returning home to mixed emotions from their country people.

Many lamented the medal drought this Olympics; some even went as far as to publicly criticize, jeer at and send abusive messages to our athletes in Rio.

Keshorn Walcott, Trinidad and Tobago’s lone medallist at the just-concluded Olympic Games, has come in for high praise from Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, Darryl Smith.

Keshorn Walcott's ­family could not be more proud of his bronze medal win in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday night.

“He went out there and he did his best. His best wasn't the first place but we are extremely proud of him and he did well,” the javelin thrower's aunt, Anna-Lee Walcott-Stewart, told the Express yesterday.

Trinidad and Tobago's Keshorn Walcott and Kenyan Julius Yego standing on the podium at the Joao Havelange Olympic Stadium here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday night, was a rare sight. Only once before, in the 120-year history of the Modern Olympics, had two non-Europeans earned precious metal in a men's javelin competition.

Rio de Janeiro and the world bid farewell yesterday to the first Olympic Games in South America, a 16-day spectacle that combined numerous highlight reel moments with ugly and even bizarre episodes that sometimes overshadowed the competitions.