The achievements of the Paralympians, and societal shift towards more inclusivity and the celebration of diversity, has had a dramatic effect on the lives of people living with disability.
Kenyan-born Ruth Jebet, just 19, waves the Bahraini flag after winning gold over Kenyan competitors at the Rio Olympics.
Reuters/Dominic Ebenbichler
Kenya's international success in track and field hides management inefficiencies and corruption that have frustrated athletes and fed a pipeline of runners willing to ditch the national flag
For Rio de Janeiro and for Brazil, these Olympic Games arrived at the worst possible time.
Reuters/Bruno Kelly
Instead of showcasing a rising global power with a booming economy, the 2014 Games put a spotlight on Brazil's most serious economic recession since the 1930s, along with a host of social problems.
Mark Mangini (left) and David White hold this year’s Oscar for Sound Editing for Mad Max: Fury Road.
Paul Buck/EPA
Amid the hand-wringing about the price of an Olympic medal, our experts crunched the numbers on the cost of success in the arts. And at A$8 million per international award, it turns out that elite culture is a lot better value than sport.
The living room TV isn’t the only way to watch the Olympics these days.
Seven West Media
Racewalking has been part of the Olympic Games since 1904, but gets little respect in the United States. That might change if Americans knew a little more about it.
Unravelling the common assumption that runners from Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have a natural advantage.
Urban planning was once an Olympic event, although the first gold medal – awarded to Germany’s Alfred Hensel for the Nuremberg stadium – turned out to be an unfortunate choice.
Imagine cities competed to eliminate hunger, poverty, unemployment, crime and greenhouse emissions, and to offer housing and transport for all. Don't scoff – urban planning was once an Olympic event.
A TV cameraman shoots a Madame Tussauds Museum figure of US Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps at Banneker Pool in Washington, to coincide with the opening of the Rio Olympics on August 5.
Gary Cameron/Reuters
A former Olympic gold medalist reflects on his own financial struggles as he trained and competed for the 1984 Games. Decades later, not much has changed for many Olympians.
Team GB winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics.
Stephen Pond / PA Archive
Over time, the body sizes and shapes of Olympians have been moving apart from each other at light-speed, and have become increasingly specialised and differentiated.
Five rings to rule them all.
lazyllama / Shutterstock.com
The IOC will allow Russian athletes to compete in Rio 2016 if they've been cleared by their respective international sporting federation of doping. Should other countries pull out of the games?