The island nation of Fiji's first ever Olympic medal is gold thanks to a dominant effort by the country's men's rugby sevens team. The Fijians throttled Great Britain 43-7 in the gold-medal game to make history.


The team finished the Olympic tournament undefeated and seemed to easily handle every opponent, including some of the most historic rugby powers. They took out New Zealand in the quarterfinals, 12-7, before besting Japan 20-5 in the semifinals to set a date with Team GB.

Fiji opened up a 29-0 advantage at halftime and cruised the rest of the way. Leone Nakarawa, one of the team's biggest stars throughout the tournament, was completely overcome with emotion after the game.

Fiji has been sending Olympians to the Summer Games since 1956 and has even had three competitors in the Winter Games, but none has ever managed to secure a medal.

Great Britain has a population of more than 64 million people, by the way. Fiji's last recorded population came in at 881,065. No matter how popular rugby might be on the island, that's a heck of an accomplishment to put a team that good together from such a relatively small pool of players.

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Fiji made history with its dominant win over Great Britain. USATSI

With Fiji taking gold and Great Britain finishing with silver, South Africa dominated Japan, 54-14, for bronze.

Rugby made its triumphant return in sevens form to Rio 92 years after it was last contested in the Olympics in its traditional form. The exciting tournament and its incredible, historic finish make it appear that this sport will be sticking around the Summer Games for a long time.