International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has delivered an uplifting year-end review of 2016 in which he claimed sport has shown its power to "unite all people in an increasingly fragile world".
The German claims this was shown by the success of Rio 2016, which will be remembered as the "marvellous Games in the marvellous city".
He claimed this was shown by participation of athletes from all 206 National Olympic Committee as well as a new Refugee Olympic Team which "sent a strong signal of hope" to millions of refugees around the world.
This came in a 1,500 word message posted on the IOC website which also touched on Russian doping problems and sporting governance challenges.
It came in a year dominated by terrorist attacks and conflict across the world.
"This unique power of sport to unite all of humanity is one of the most important things that the Olympic Games can give us in our troubled times," the German wrote.
"In a world where mistrust and uncertainty are on the rise, sport is a source of joy and inspiration for so many people, giving us hope that our shared humanity is stronger than the forces that want to divide us.
"Half the world’s population tuned into Games coverage, making Rio 2016 the most-consumed Olympic Games in history, when one takes into account broadcast and social media.
"The explosion of social media platforms in recent years meant that more people than ever followed these Olympic Games via social media, with 7.2 billion views of official video content.
"An international survey has found that these Olympic Games are strongly associated with positive attributes such as 'excellence', 'friendship' and 'respect', among many others."
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