Tokyo Olympics 2020 Closing Ceremony: Bajrang Punia walks out with Indian flag, India finishes with its best-ever Olympic tally

After a scintillating 15-day action, the 32nd Olympiad comes to an end on Sunday. The Tokyo Olympics, which were delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officially opened on July 23 and saw record-breaking history being made across multiple sporting events.

Bajrang Punia, who finished with a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in men's freestyle 65kg wrestling event, will be the flag-bearer for India at the closing ceremony in Tokyo.

The largest Indian contingent will bid the Games a special goodbye, after finishing their campaign with the best medal tally in history.

Neeraj Chopra's gold medal, followed by those of Mirabai Chanu (silver), Ravi Kumar Dahiya (silver), PV Sindhu (bronze), Bajrang Punia (bronze), Indian men's hockey team (bronze) and Lovlina Borgohain (bronze), led India's medal charge and scripted history by helping the country best their previous tally at the London Olympics.

China was leading 38-36 as the action headed to the final day but with 3 gold medals, USA piped China in one of the closest races for the Olympic top spot in the history of the Games.

USA registered its first gold medal on the final day when its women's basketball team beat Japan in the final. The second gold came from cyclist Jennifer Valente while the decisive podium finish came after the US women's volleyball team scripted history by winning its first-ever Olympic gold.

USA's medal tally slipped considerably from the Rio Games. While they had won 46 gold medals in 30 fewer events in 2016, only 39 came in Tokyo as the country slipped in track events with none of its men winning gold medals - a first in modern Olympic history.

A record 83 nations reached finals, there were 43 teams on the podium and 23 won gold. There were three world records, 12 Olympic records, 28 area records and 151 national records set.

The United States topped the medal table with 26, including seven golds.

India headed to the Tokyo Games with its biggest-ever medal contingent and finished with their biggest-ever medal tally.

India started their campaign with a Silver medal from weightlifter Mirabai Chanu and they ended their campaign with a historic gold medal, their first-ever in track and field when Neeraj Chopra won the Men's Javelin gold on August 8.