‘Most challenging’ Tokyo Olympics declared closed

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Tokyo 2020 Games were declared closed by IOC chief Thomas Bach yesterday, ending the “most challenging Olympic journey” after a year’s pandemic delay and threats of cancellation. Tokyo passed the Olympic baton to Paris after staging a Games that dismayed a sceptical public but still delivered its share of drama.

Bach called them “unprecedented Olympic Games” as he addressed the 68,000-seat Olympic Stadium, which was bereft of fans as Japan battles to contain a record coronavirus outbreak. “In these difficult times we are all living through, you give the world the most precious of gifts: hope,” the International Olympic Committee president told athletes at the ceremony. “And now I have to mark the end of this most challenging Olympic journey to Tokyo: I declare the Games of the 32nd Olympiad closed,” he added.

It marked a low-key end to an extraordinary Olympics that have mostly played out in empty venues with only athletes, team officials and media present. Athletes have lived in strict biosecure conditions with social distancing at the Olympic Village and instructions to wear masks unless eating, sleeping, training or competing.

Bach has described how the IOC considered cancelling the Olympics and claiming the costs on its insurance policy but said officials ploughed ahead with holding the Games “for the athletes”.

“Some were already speaking of ‘Ghost Games’,” he told an IOC session earlier yesterday. “What we have seen here is that on the contrary, the athletes have brought soul to the Olympic Games.”

Trans athletes, ‘twisties’

Fears of a major outbreak among the mostly vaccinated Olympic athletes and officials proved unfounded and 430 cases were picked up during the Games, including 32 in the Olympic Village.

But the virus has lurked as an ever-present threat. Victory celebrations were muted, with lonely laps of honour. But the athletes’ emotions were in full view. Superstar gymnast Simone Biles provided the most jaw-dropping moment when she abruptly pulled out of competition over about of the “twisties”, a disorientating mental block.

Biles, widely acknowledged as the greatest gymnast in history, recovered sufficiently to claim a redemptive bronze medal in her final event, the beam. Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand became the first openly transgender woman to compete at the Games and Canada’s Quinn became the first openly transgender Olympic medallist, with gold in women’s football.

In other highlights, the US men’s team won their fourth consecutive men’s basketball crown, US swimmer Caeleb Dressel assumed the mantle of Michael Phelps with five gold medals in the pool and Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah achieved a sprint double on the track.