Olympics
Tributes and empty stands as Tokyo 2020 closes; US tops medal tally with 39 golds
As Tokyo 2020 closed in a sea of colour amid tribute videos, fireworks, a light show and performances featuring traditional and modern elements, the empty stands at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium on Sunday (Aug 8) best symbolised the first Olympics to feature social distancing.
As the baton was passed to Paris 2024, and International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach handed the Olympic flag to Paris Mayor Ana Maria Hidalgo, it was also a reminder that sport can still unite the world, and an example of how such a global spectacle can co-exist with the coronavirus pandemic.
“For the first time since the pandemic began, the entire world came together. Sport returned to centre stage,” said Bach before he declared the Games of the 32nd Olympiad, which had been delayed by a year, closed.
“Billions of people around the globe were united by emotion, sharing moments of joy and inspiration. This gives us hope. This gives us faith in the future. Tokyo 2020 are the Olympics Games of hope, solidarity and peace.”
He also thanked the Japanese government and people for staging the Games despite the immense challenges posed by the pandemic.
Over 17 days, billions worldwide watched as athletes from 206 territories slugged it out across 339 events in 33 sports.
In total, 26 world records were broken, and many more fairy tales written as the Philippines, Bermuda and Qatar each won their first Olympic gold medal.
Alessandra Perilli’s bronze medal in women’s trap shooting made San Marino the smallest country (population 33,500) to ever win a medal at the Games.
There were podium finishes for 93 different teams, which is the Olympics’ biggest list of medal-winning sides, eventually topped by the United States with 39 golds. China was one gold behind in second place, with host Japan third with 27 golds, its best haul ever.
However, Singapore, represented by divers Jonathan Chan and Freida Lim at the closing ceremony march-in, will return without a medal for the first time in four Games, though it had 23 athletes across a record 12 sports.
There were many other breakthroughs.
The five new sports – skateboarding, karate, surfing, baseball and softball and sports climbing – captured the imagination with local flavour and urban cool, and these Games were the most gender-balanced edition with 48.8 per cent women’s participation.
New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard became the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics. American skateboarder Alana Smith was also the Games’ first openly non-binary athlete.
Mental health became a hot topic after American gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from five out of six events, as was physical health.
Despite Tokyo being in a state of emergency, and polls depicting a lack of public support for the hosting of the Games, thousands of curious and enthusiastic locals still thronged the streets for outdoor events such as the cycling road race, triathlon and marathon.
However, it was mostly empty in indoor arenas as no fans, local or foreign, were allowed in the stands. It was a tough but perhaps necessary decision – helping to prevent Tokyo 2020 from becoming a virus super-spreading event.
With 430 positive cases out of over 20,000 participants since the start of July, the organisers and local authorities can consider it a job well done when there were so much adjustments and adaptations.
But with future organisers already talking about a “spectacular” Paris 2024, where delegations may stream down the River Seine in boats past the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Louvre – with coronavirus contingencies in place, of course – the sporting world will surely be one in hoping for another big change.
An Olympics without a pandemic.
-The Straits Times
Organisers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics said on Monday that registration for the first ticket draw will close on March 18, as the Games begin to take shape with the first baseball qualifiers confirmed and the soccer tournament schedule expanded.
More than five million fans from 197 countries and territories have registered at tickets.la28.org since January for a chance to buy tickets, LA28 said, underscoring strong early demand for the Summer Games, which are due to open on July 14, 2028.
Fans who register by the March 18 deadline will be eligible for a lottery to receive a purchase window for the first ticket release, scheduled for April 9-19.
There will also be a local presale running from April 2-6 for eligible residents in parts of Southern California and Oklahoma. Oklahoma City will host softball and canoe slalom.
LA28 said selected applicants would be notified by email between March 31 and April 7. Fans picked for the first sale window will be able to buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, subject to availability, with a four-ticket cap for each of the opening and closing ceremonies.
BASEBALL RETURNS
The ticketing update comes as the first teams booked places in the Olympic baseball tournament through the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela secured qualification spots from the Americas, joining host United States in the six-team field.
Baseball, one of the sports added to the LA28 programme, will return to the Olympics for the first time since the Tokyo Games and will be played at Dodger Stadium from July 13-19. The remaining three places will be decided through international qualifying tournaments in 2027 and 2028.
LA28 also confirmed that the Olympic soccer tournament will begin on July 10, four days before the opening ceremony, following a decision by the International Olympic Committee Executive Board to extend the competition window.
Organisers said the longer schedule would give teams two additional rest days compared with previous Games.
Group-stage and quarter-final matches will be staged in seven U.S. cities – New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, San Diego and Pasadena – with the men’s and women’s gold medal matches to be played at the Rose Bowl.
LA28 said kickoff times and the full schedule would be released later this year.
-Reuters
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Athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Games have raced through their free condom supply ahead of Valentine’s Day, leaving dispensers empty on Saturday, with more than a week of competition remaining.
According to a report by Reuters, organisers had distributed around 10,000 condoms across the city and mountain accommodation sites, continuing a long-standing Olympic tradition aimed at promoting safe relationships among competitors living in close quarters.
By Saturday, however, supplies had run out — adding Milan to a growing list of Olympic hosts where demand has comfortably exceeded expectations.
“Clearly, this shows Valentine’s Day is in full swing at the village,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference. “Ten thousand have been used — 2,800 athletes — you can go figure, as they say.”
Adams added with a smile: “It is rule 62 of the Olympic Charter that we have to have a condoms story. Faster, higher, stronger, together.”
Milano Cortina organisers later acknowledged that stocks had been depleted due to “higher-than-anticipated demand,” but assured that additional supplies were already on the way.
“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all Villages between today and Monday,” organisers said in a statement. “They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”
The unexpected shortage also surprised some athletes.
Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo said he had only just heard about the situation. “I just saw that this morning. I was, like, shocked as everyone else,” he said.
Mialitiana Clerc, an alpine skier representing Madagascar, noted that boxes once placed at building entrances were quickly emptied.
“There were a lot of boxes at the entrance of every building where we were staying, and every day, everything had gone from the boxes,” Clerc said. “I already know that a lot of people are using condoms, or giving them to their friends outside of the Olympics, because it’s a kind of gift for them.”
While medals remain the official measure of achievement at the Games, the empty dispensers suggest that the social side of the Olympics is also proceeding at full pace.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday awarded a top state honour to an Olympic skeleton racer who was disqualified from the Winter Games for wearing a helmet commemorating athletes killed in the war with Russia.
Zelenskiy, speaking to Vladyslav Heraskevych on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference, said he had great respect for “all the Olympians who supported you and your position.”
“Medals are important for Ukraine and for you, but it seems to me that the most important thing is who you are,” Zelenskiy said while presenting the racer with the Order of Freedom.
Heraskevych told the president the award was “huge” and that the athletes depicted on the helmet “deserve it even more. Because of their sacrifice, we can compete in the Olympics.”
Heraskevych, 27, was disqualified at the Winter Games in Italy on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that the helmet’s depiction of athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 breached rules on political neutrality.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed his appeal on Friday.
Heraskevych told reporters after the award ceremony that his disqualification was discriminatory as he had not violated the Olympic Charter, a document he said he “really valued.”
“But at the same time, I understand that this scandal has united people around the world about our problem and about the sacrifice of these great athletes, and I believe this goal is much more important than any medal,” he said.
Speaking before the CAS hearing earlier in the day, Heraskevych said his exclusion and rules imposed by the International Olympic Committee were “an instrument of propaganda for Russia. I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”
-Reuters
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