Curtain came down on the Tokyo Olympic Games

After the curtain came down on the Tokyo Olympic Games on Sunday, the Chinese delegation boarded their flights home having served up two weeks of spine-tingling action that transcended the sporting landscape to cheer the entire nation.

Leaving the Japanese capital with 38 gold, 32 silver and 18 bronze medals, Team China tied its London 2012 result as the best golden haul at an overseas Olympics. That proved worthy of a second-place finish in the overall medal table, just one gold behind the United States' leading tally of 39 golds.

There were plenty of memorable moments off the podium too.  Chinese athletes finished in the top eight places 158 times in Tokyo－another all-time high since the country's Olympic debut in 1984.

As something of a post-Games bonus, Chinese athletes have all returned home safe and clean, without a single COVID-19 case reported or any of their 226 drug tests returning a positive result.

The majority of delegates have returned from the Summer Games. They were driven to hotels to go through strict COVID-19 quarantine measures.