The mammoth Rio listicle: 38 heroes, fails and highlights from the Games

She fought. She fought hard. She came back from the brink of defeat in all but one bout. That's Sakshi Malik, the wrestler from Haryana for you. She ended India's medal drought in the final few days with a bronze medal and she celebrated like no one else.

Long under Saina's shadow, Sindhu emerged to become the poster girl of the Olympics for India. On the third last day of the Games, she narrowly lost out to world no. 1 from Spain Carolina Marin, pushing her to three games and settled for silver, a first for an Indian woman in badminton.

Finishing fourth in the Vault finals - an event which Simone Biles dominated - is no mean feat. She's the first Indian gymnast in way too long, and the first Indian female gymnast ever and she deserves every accolade and all the support going forward.

Adam Peaty has changed the face of the 100m breaststroke at the Rio Olympics with a blistering world record time of 57.13 seconds. He followed that up with silver in the 4x100m medley relay. All of this at 21 years of age. Some even compared his time to Usain Bolt's below 10-second runs at the various Games.

The fails:

What more can be said about the man who has done no right in his short tenure as sports minister? Vijay Goel has proven that he knows nothing about the art of the Olympics and less so about sports in general. And let's not even start about how little he knows of our sportspersons.

Neymar was the hero for Brazil as the host nation finally won the last remaining international trophy that eluded them. Neymar was in tears after he delivered the winning penalty in the shootout. Brazil defeated Germany 5-4 on penalties after it finished 1-1 at the end of regulation time. It was a thrilling final played out at the Maracana stadium on Saturday.

This deserves a mention for two reasons. Firstly, it was the first time ever that rugby sevens was played at the Olympics. Secondly, there was an upset winner for gold. Fiji trampled all over Great Britain, winning the final 43-7 and claiming their first ever gold medal at an Olympics. In fact, this was Fiji's first medal of any colour.

Joseph Schooling provided the upset in the pool. The Singaporean beat Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly final, winning his country's first ever gold medal. Schooling also set a new Olympic record with his timing of 50.39 seconds. What's even more amazing is that Phelps tied with Chad le Clos and Laszlo Cseh for the silver.

Rafaela Silva became a household name after she bested Mongolia's Sumiya Dorjsuren in a gripping finale to the women's 57 kg contest to win Brazil's first gold medal of the Games. Silva had been disqualified at the London 2012 Olympics for an illegal pinning down of her opponent but none of that mattered in Rio.

No one thought that Michael Johnson's 17-year-old record would be broken at the Rio Olympics. Wayde van Niekerk did just that with a blistering timing of 43.03 seconds. Enough said.

Ethiopian Feyisa Lilesa is not returning home. "If I go back to Ethiopia, the government will kill me." Lilesa won silver in the marathon but as he crossed the finish line, he raised his arms over his head and crossed his wrists. He repeated the same gesture in the post-race presser.

An African-American woman has finally won an individual gold medal in swimming. Simone Manuel, a 20-year-old junior at Stanford University, finished in tied-first with Canadian Penny Oleksiak in the 100m freestyle race. She not only broke the world record but she also broke many barriers.

"The unequivocal breakout stars of the 2016 Olympics games were the 10 athletes that made up the Refugee Olympic Team (ROT)," Linda Ge writes in The Wrap. That was the embodiment of the Games. The International Olympic Committee along with the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, worked together to make a refugee team possible. These athletes, originally from four different countries, will never ever forget the Games.

Hsu Shu-ching won Chinese Taipei its first ever Olympic gold medal as she lifted a total of 212kg in the women's 53kg group of Chinese Taipei (weightlifting).

While all of you are gushing over silver medallist PV Sindhu and bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, let's take a moment and remember the other Indians that are equally deserving of all the support.

A) Dattu Baban Bhokanal (rower)

Dattu Baban Bhokanal brought home his canoe in 13th position, the best an Indian rower has been able to do at the mega-event.

B) Vinesh Phogat (wrestling)

Vinesh Phogat looked set to win her quarterfinal bout but a freak knee injury saw her campaign end in tears and pain. Phogat's opponent from China, Sun Yanan fought back with a single-leg take down to gain the upper hand. The move also injured Phogat who had to leave in a stretcher.

C) Saina Nehwal (badminton)

If Saina Nehwal didn't have a knee injury, the world number 5 would have definitely brought home a medal for India. The ace shuttler was limited in her movements and wasn't able to fully extend her gameplay and suffered a shock first round exit.

D) Atanu Das (archery)

Atanu Das lost in a nail-bitingly close match against Korean archer and world number five Seengy-un Lee. Das produced a tremendous effort to finish fifth in the tanking rounds.

E) Women's archery team

India's Archery trio of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi and Bombayla Devi lost 4-5 to Russia in women's team quarters. The match went in to a shootout and the Indians came up agonisingly short.

Sports worth remembering:

Such a simple sport, as far as equipment goes. Take a bow and arrow and a target. If only it were so simple for the archer. It's a back and forth contest and a lot of the matches go down to the wire.

Look no further than Simone Biles and Dipa Karmakar. Or just the women's all-round event. No matter what gymnastic event was on, it's hard not to turn your attention toward the gymnast.

Ronda Rousey, a former Judoka now-turned MMA wrestler is a household name. It's an intense sport which can go either way.

The sport that literally no one cares about comes alive once every four years. All you need is a pool and a ball and you get full on entertainment.

Yes, fencing. It's a sport where people fully cover themselves, duelling it out till the end. It's a riveting affair, one in which a competitor's phone once fell out of his pocket.

The sport that no one thought was a sport turns out to be the most exciting every four years. That sport is Handball. A cross between basketball, football, water polo and god knows what. It's enthralling and at Rio 2016, you just couldn't take your eyes off of it.