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.

China accounted for four of the 23 world records broken at the Games, spearheaded by the women's 4x200m freestyle relay swimming team (7 minutes and 40.33 seconds).

Men's weightlifter Shi Zhiyong improved his own world record by a kilogram to 364kg to win the 73kg class. Track cycling duo Zhong Tianshi and Bao Shanju clocked 31.804 seconds in their heat to set a world record in team sprint en route to retaining gold, before marksman Zhang Changhong fired a world-best score of 466 points to hit the golden target in the men's 50m rifle 3-position.