![]() ![]() The IOC had been desperate to project Tokyo 2020 as the end of the Covid tunnel, the occasion of humanity’s vanquishing of the virus. There was no more heart-rending scene than the ghostly, abandoned fan zone beside Tokyo Bay, symbolising all that the people of Japan were denied. Spectators have never felt so conspicuous by their absence. Bach was mistaken when he argued that you did not notice the emptiness of many venues. The sadness, naturally, was that no fans could be present to share these emotions. Elsewhere, there was memorable sportsmanship, not least in the sight of Mutaz Essa Barshim sharing his high jump gold with Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi, a gesture that left his rival weeping and whooping for the next three hours. Instead, she finished last in her final, having failed to complete a single lift. The involvement of New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard, the first openly transgender weightlifter, sparked concerns that she was undermining fair competition. It was a decision that detonated a profound shock across sport, as a young woman famed for her poise on a 4in-wide balance beam revealed her vulnerability to the world.įittingly for an Olympics like no other, precedents were broken in the least expected ways. ![]() Or take the women’s gymnastics, where Simone Biles had expected to dominate but withdrew from all but one of her events, citing mental health struggles. Take the men’s 100m final, the Olympics’ unmissable centrepiece, won by Marcell Jacobs, a Texas-born Italian who had not even broken 10 seconds three months ago. The sport proved thrillingly unpredictable. And while you may not have heard the roar of the crowd in Tokyo, every one of you has given us a reason to cheer back home – in living rooms, pubs, parks and offices across the land.” “You have shown grace in victory and amazing courage in defeat. “This team has shown that even in the most difficult circumstances, sport brings people together and changes lives,” Boris Johnson said. ![]() To emerge from the chaos of Covid with 22 golds, marking the country’s second most successful Olympic campaign on foreign soil, was an achievement worth trumpeting. Despite fraught preparations, and a notably less Soviet-style approach to winning at all costs, they wound up with 65 medals, equalling their collection at London 2012. Tom Daley channelled the frustration of all his Olympic near-misses to claim a stunning gold in the synchronised diving.įor Team GB, the haul of precious metal was more lavish than they had dared to expect. Norway’s Karsten Warholm ran the 400m hurdles in a time faster than most British men this year have managed on the flat. Even when cut off from their families, the faces of the Tokyo Games have produced indelible displays of fortitude and flair. These are the Olympics of hope, solidarity and peace.”īach can be insufferably grandiose at times, but his core message about the electrifying power of sport was hard to dispute. “Billions of people around the globe were united by emotion, sharing moments of joy and inspiration. Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, struck his usual note of triumphalism. Sympathetic to that urge, organisers transformed the stadium floor into a miniature park, criss-crossed by buskers and BMX riders, giving athletes some sense of the metropolis from which they had been cocooned. The atmosphere she encountered was one of giddy relief, as hundreds of competitors weary of draconian Covid restrictions took their lone chance to savour an authentic Tokyo experience. While a seventh gold medal for Jason Kenny, courtesy of a dramatic victory in the keirin, confirmed him as the nation’s most decorated Olympian, his wife Laura, a five-time champion, had the honour of carrying the flag into the Olympic Stadium. ![]() The final act of Tokyo 2020’s closing ceremony, the petal-panels of a spherical cauldron extinguishing the flame like shutting a flower, was in keeping with the mood of these Games: haunting, understated, and yet strangely beautiful.īringing 206 nations together during a pandemic, in one of the world’s most densely-populated cities? Science suggested it should never be attempted, and yet somehow it happened: the ghost Games, eerily bereft of fans but salvaged by the stoicism of the hosts and the luminous talent of over 10,000 athletes.Īmong them were the all-conquering couple of British cycling. An Olympics improbable to stage turned out to be impossible to forget. ![]()
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