TOKYO: Tokyo doused its Olympic flame on Sunday in a ceremony that echoed the restraint of the Games held without spectators and transformed by the global pandemic, dazzling sport and deeply person turmoil.
After postponing the Tokyo 2020 Games for a year, organisers said the event would serve as a symbol of world triumph over the pandemic. But with strict pandemic countermeasures and as COVID-19 variants have surged back around the world, the Olympics fell short of the triumph and financial windfall Japan had wanted.
The ceremony, although lustreless, gave athletes something of a glimpse of everyday Tokyo life as the Olympic Stadium was transformed into a park with grass, buskers and BMX riders.
The scene was meant so the visitors could "experience Tokyo", organisers said, a poignant reminder of the many restrictions of the Games.
It was a duly odd ending to an unprecedented event. Japan is now saddled with a $15 billion bill, double what it initially expected, and with no tourist boom.
The president of the International Olympic Committee thanked the Japanese people and acknowledged the difficulty of staging the Games during the pandemic.
"For the first time since the pandemic began, the entire world came together," Thomas Bach said. "Nobody has ever organised a postponed Games before."
PUBLIC ANGER
Public anger over the pandemic response and a slow-to-start vaccine roll-out have badly damaged Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's standing. Public opinion polls showed most Japanese opposed holding the Games during the pandemic.
Still, organisers appear to have prevented the Tokyo Games from spiralling into a COVID-19 superspreader event, notable given that some 50,000 people came together amid the pandemic.
In a sign of the measures, winners accepted their prizes from trays, putting the medals around their own necks, although social-distancing protocols such as preventing hugging were largely ignored throughout the Games.
Japan's record medal haul also helped to take out some of the sting for organisers. The The Games also showcased the Olympics' push for more diversity.
For the first time, a victory ceremony was held for both the women's and men's marathon event. The Kenyan anthem filled the 68,000-capacity stadium twice, for gold medallists Peres Jepchirchir and Eliud Kipchoge.
And when they came, the Games themselves provided plenty of high drama.
Her frank admission, combined with earlier comments by Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka, brought a sharp focus on issues of athletes' mental health.
In athletics, Italy provided a different kind of shock with their amazing run. In swimming, a United States team without 23-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps still ended the meeting on top of the medals table.
Capping five years of intense preparations for athletes, some of them stretched out on the grass laid down in the stadium. Some appeared to relax as they watched a volley of fireworks light up the Tokyo sky.
In the end, two massive screens stadium projected a retro display that called back to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics: the word "ARIGATO" or "thank you".
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