Tokyo's Triumph

These weren't the Olympics Tokyo was expecting.  Not in 2010-11 when they first put their bid together.  Not in 2013 when they won the right to host the Games.  Not in 2016 when they took the flag from Rio.  Not even in 2019 when they were hosting test events.  But in 2021, these were the Olympics they got.

Here's the crazy thing, though...they pulled it off!  After everything they had to go thru from the time of the postponement to the Games themselves, everyone was wondering how/if the 2020 Olympics would go forward and worried those 17 days might never come.  Well, not only did the Tokyo Olympics happen, they were a success!

The Closing Ceremony of any Olympics is often a bittersweet moment.  All of that work for all that time, and just like that it's over.  But, I'd assume the organizers also feel a huge sense of accomplishment.  Never was that the case more than in Tokyo.  They overcame every obstacle that was thrown in front of them and put on an Olympics that nobody will ever forget.

Tokyo's legacy will no doubt be a complicated one.  They were the first Olympics to be postponed a year.  They were the first to take place without any fans.  They were the first to be held in the middle of a global pandemic.  But that's not why they were memorable.  They were memorable for all the right reasons. 

After everything the athletes had to endure in the five long years between Rio and Tokyo, how would anyone have been able to justify taking this experience away from them?  Make no mistake, this wasn't the type of Olympics the athletes were expecting either.  But, if their choices were an Olympics with all these restrictions or no Olympics at all, it's obvious which one was gonna be the pick.  And, I must say, the athletes definitely made the most of it and still put on quite a show!

For me, one of the coolest things about these Olympics was seeing so many athletes support their teammates.  They were only allowed to go back and forth from the Olympic Village to their training facility or competition venue, so the other sessions of their own sport were the only things they could attend as fans.  But they all did.  And, thanks to the other athletes, the venues weren't sterile at all.  They still had a cheering crowd.  It was just significantly smaller.  They still had that atmosphere.  It still felt and sounded like an Olympics, even if it might not have looked like it.

Just imagine how insane some events would've been had they had a raucous crowd, though?  The baseball final between Japan and the United States?  Miracle On Ice level insane!  It probably would've been the same for the softball final between the two.  And for the skateboarding finals that were both won by Japan.  And who knows how deep the crowds would've extended on the streets of Sapporo during the marathons?

However, the lack of fans also let us experience the Olympics in a very different way.  In much the same way as the NHL and NBA bubbles last year, we actually got to hear the Olympics.  And not in the crazy flag-waving, national-chanting way we usually do.  We got to hear the athletes and coaches, live and in real time during the biggest competition of their lives.  It was a different perspective that only increased our appreciation for their greatness.

Of course, there's a painful irony in the fact that the fanless Olympics took place in the most populous city on Earth.  The Japanese people were so excited for these Games, and you know the venues would've been packed.  Just as you feel for those Japanese fans, you feel for the athletes, who weren't allowed to go out and explore the city.  They weren't even allowed to stick around the Village after they were done.  They had to return home within 48 hours of their event ending.  But again, those are sacrifice they were willing to make.

And, while we won't know definitively for another couple of weeks, it looks like those fears that the Olympics would be a massive superspreader event proved to be unfounded.  There were positive tests, which they knew there would be.  But there was no COVID outbreak in the Village or anywhere else.  So, even with the delta variant running wild in Tokyo, the Olympic Village proved to be the safe, secure bubble it was intended to be.  And you didn't have Olympic visitors infecting the Japanese public either!

It isn't just the organization of these Games that should make Japan proud, either.  We all fully expected them to get the home team boost, but not to this extent!  They won 27 gold medals, third most of any country behind only the United States and China!  Their previous high was 16!  They won 58 total medals!  Their previous high was 41!  

A lot of those medals came in the new sports that were introduced for these Games.  They sure picked well, seeing as Japan won gold in both baseball and softball, as well as three of the four skateboarding events, with another in karate, plus a silver and bronze in surfing.  Although, while the new sports might've inflated Japan's total a little bit, so did judo, where they won a ridiculous nine gold, two silver and one bronze in 15 events (yet somehow lost the final of the mixed team event to France).

Speaking of France, they're up next.  And we can only hope that the 2024 Olympics in Paris take place in a world much more like the one we lived in until March 2020 than the one we've lived in since.  In fact, it could very well be the first worldwide gathering since the pandemic started that doesn't have the specter of COVID hanging over it.  And, if that's the case, it'll truly be a reason to rejoice!

But that doesn't mean there's any less of a reason to celebrate the Tokyo Games.  They'll always hold a special place in Olympic history simply because of all the obstacles that needed to be overcome.  But they did overcome those obstacles and still managed to put on an Olympics that were spectacular.  Subarashi, Tokyo!  Subarashi.