As Olympics slay, Japan reflects on its lasting legacy

As a baby, Hiroko Fujita watched the 1964 Tokyo Video games on television. Now remembered as an occasion that brought live Olympics sports activities to the arena, Fujita told CNN how thrilling it had been to scrutinize competitions on the magic box as Japan’s economy boomed. 

On the opposite hand, as a tag-holder, she had appeared forward to staring at the Tokyo 2020 Video games in person this 12 months. 

Whereas Tokyo 1964 showcased Japan as an emerging global strength on the international stage, with Tokyo 2020, Japan had hoped to revive its stagnating economy. It had also anticipated to coloration the mega-wearing occasion as a image of the country’s restoration from the destruction and tragedy of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. 

But because the pandemic continued to ravage the arena and the Video games contain been delayed by a 12 months, Japan shifted its message to level of interest on how these Olympics represented the arena’s ability to unite and overcome Covid-19. All the device thru these Video games, the opposite folks CNN spoke to in prefectures as diverse as Saitama, Fukushima and Shizuoka expressed blended and deeply divided feelings in the direction of the Summer season Video games.

Anti-Olympic protesters told CNN the Video games needs to be canceled as it cost lives and livelihoods amid the pandemic.

But as competitions kicked off and Japan’s gold medal depend racked up, the public’s mood also shifted. Hiroki Kadote told CNN he wished the Video games to be held so athletes would perchance perhaps attain their personal bests.

Minori Omori a shopkeeper in Tokyo’s Koto ward acknowledged he spent his days camped out in front of his TV to phrase the wins and upsets.

Others defied the speak of emergency divulge in Tokyo and gathered outdoors Olympic venues to purchase a seek of opponents and snap selfies and photos to hunt support on.

On the opposite hand, as coronavirus instances surge in and at some level of the nation to file highs, and tens of hundreds of athletes, journalists and officials prepare to pack up and leave on Monday, Japan will be left to grapple with the lasting legacy of these Summer season Video games for months and years to near support. 

Whether or no longer Japan pulled off the no longer possible or was once left to manage with the consequences of an Olympics take care of no other will remain to be seen.

Tokyo 2020 would perchance perhaps additionally effectively be over but Olympic followers won’t contain to support long for one other repair of action.

The 2022 Frigid climate Olympics is made up our minds to commence up in no longer as a lot as six months with Beijing web web hosting the wearing spectacle at the start of February.

And, with this 12 months’s Video games being postponed by a 12 months on fable of the pandemic, the next Summer season Video games in Paris is correct three years away.

Which you would possibly additionally additionally test out this 12 months’s Paralympic Video games starting Aug. 24. These Video games will even be conducted in Tokyo.

It be time to remark sayonara.

But as one closing reminder of what the Olympic Video games contain brought us — medals and emotions amid a global pandemic — over the old few weeks, you would possibly well well test out CNN photo body of workers’s selection of one of the considerable footage that defined Tokyo 2020 right here.

The president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach addressed the stadium, and the arena, as he brought an official slay to Tokyo 2020.

In his speech, Bach thanked the athletes and the Jap other folks for his or her laborious work and sacrifices in staging the most logistically no longer easy Olympic Video games in historical previous.

All that is left to attain is extinguish the Olympic flame, which has been burning within the stadium since the Opening Ceremony.

Within the period in-between in Paris, the sky has been painted red, whereas and blue by the Patrouille de France — the French Air Force’s aerobatic body of workers — over the French capital.

That undoubtedly delivered two functions, sooner and better, of the Olympic circulate’s “Sooner, Increased, Stronger — Together” motto.

Within the period in-between there might be a celebration going on at the Trocadéro, the set Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet and a lot of other French athletes, who contain returned from Tokyo, have gotten a member of in a celebration-take care of atmosphere, though it is miles noticeable many in the crew are wearing masks.

Estanguet is three-time Olympic champion, three-time world champion and three-time European champion in single canoe slalom.

The Olympic flag has been passed on to the host of the next Summer season Video games, Paris.

The governor or Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, handed the flag to an Olympic consultant, who gave it to Anne Hidalgo, the mayor or Paris. The Summer season Olympics in Paris will happen in 2024.

But don’t fear: While you would possibly well presumably additionally be craving extra Olympic content, you precise contain to support six months till the commence of the 2022 Frigid climate Video games, which kick off in February in Beijing.

The script was once flipped for a second at the Closing Ceremony, with some athletes presenting one of the considerable Tokyo 2020 volunteers with the identical bouquets of plant life given out to the medalists.

Athletes and country representatives in the stadium took a second to honor the volunteers who contain worked at some level of this unheard of Olympic Video games held at some level of a global pandemic.

Within the center of competitions, the volunteers contain methodically cleared hurdles, swept sweat off basketball courts — as avid gamers ran to the opposite facet of the court — and fetched water for umpires on baseball fields. 

On the opposite hand, the role of volunteers hasn’t been with out its controversies.

Whereas some 80,000 other folks contain been at the start registered to volunteer at the Tokyo Video games, 10,000 had stop before the Video games started, with some citing insufficient coronavirus countermeasures, and since the pandemic shifted public opinion towards the Olympics.

Most international volunteers weren’t allowed into Japan consequently of the global pandemic.

As phase of the closing ceremony, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who won the boys’s marathon earlier on Sunday, was once awarded his gold medal in a podium presentation.

With round 12 kilometers of the bustle closing, Kipchoge pulled constructive of the lead pack to cross the line in a time of two hours, eight minutes and 38 seconds — bigger than a minute constructive of the Netherlands’ Abdi Nageeye in second and Belgium’s Bashir Abdi in third. 

By winning Sunday’s bustle, the 36-12 months-historical Kenyan grew to develop into the third man to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title.

After his victory Kipchoge disarmingly remarked that he’d “wished to study my effectively being” and gauge how he was once “feeling.”

Others contain been much less understated in assessing Kipchoge’s dominant performance.

“Eliud Kipchoge is the supreme of all time… in ANY sport,” performance coach and writer Steve Magness wrote on Twitter. “His domination in a significant sport in the trendy technology is unheard of.”

Which you would possibly additionally read extra on Kipchoge’s marathon preserve conclude HERE.

The celebration is continuing at the Olympic Closing Ceremony with music from the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, a Jap ska and jazz band.

A lot of the stadium is empty consequently of coronavirus restrictions, but the band has a tubby viewers of flag bearers and athletes on the sphere. There are also dancers transferring thru the crew because the band performs a lot of songs.

The Closing Ceremony marks the official slay of the 2020 Tokyo Video games.