Looking back at Tokyo 2020’s positives and negatives

The Games of the XXXII Olympiad was earlier billed for July 24 to Aug. 9 in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced a postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics.

When the showpiece eventually kicked off on July 23, Tokyo 2020 had on display 339 events in the 33 sports and 50 disciplines.

At the end of the Games, the U.S topped the medals table with 133 medals, comprising 39 gold, while China closely followed with 38 gold medals for an 88 medal-haul.

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Hosts Japan came third with 27 gold and a total of 58 medals, while Great Britain finished fourth with a total of 65 medals, with 22 of them being gold.

But, as much as the rush for medals was one big and usual Games’ highlight, there were other events — on and off the field — which unbelievably dominated the talking points and defined the event for good or bad.

The Tokyo Games will be remembered for the records set and shattered, with three world records, 12 Olympic records, 28 Area records and 151 national records.

Two of the records which caught the eyes of the world were those of javelin star Neeraj Chopra of India and triple jump star Hugues Zango of Burkina Faso.

Both athletes became the first to win Olympic medals in track and field for their countries, taking the total number of nations on the Olympic athletics medals list to 100.

A record 83 teams reached finals of their events in Tokyo, with 93 teams featuring on the medal podium after winning at least one medal and 65 of them  winning at least one gold medal.

The total number of teams on the medals table is the biggest in athletics for more than 20 years.

Many attributed those feats to the “magic shoes” developed by sportswear companies to enhance athletes’ performance.

Others believe that the tech-advanced tracks in Tokyo also played a role.

However, apart from records, mental health was in focus at the Tokyo Games as athletes had for long complained that attention was only paid to their bodies, not their minds.

U.S gymnast Simone Biles, sensing that performance at the highest level is a functionality of the body and mind, partially withdrew from the Games.

Other athletes, such as British swimmer Adam Peaty and Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka, also spoke up about the need to pay attention to athletes’ mental health.

Biles ended up picking a bronze medal in balance beam, but it was her stance on mental health that sparked the debate that will continue beyond Tokyo 2020.

Another aspect of Tokyo 2020 that tickled the fancy of many across the world was the reception enjoyed by the new sports introduced at the Games.

As the International Olympics Committee (IOC) allowed the host organising committee to add new sports, the Japanese Olympic Committee added karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding.

Skateboarding and sport climbing were particularly well received at the Games and attracted more young people to the Olympics.

At a time when the Olympics is losing its global appeal and interest in bidding to host the showpiece is becoming more monotonous, involving more of these “street sports” has been seen to be crucial to reigniting interest in the Games.

More interesting is the fact that in January 2020, concerns were being raised at the feasibility of hosting the Games.

The organisers, the Japanese government, athletes and the public were divided as to what decision to be made.

Many Japanese health experts and a section of their public, at best, wanted the event to be postponed.

Other hardliners wanted the Olympics to be cancelled altogether.

In March 2020, both the Japanese government and the IOC had succumbed to internal and external pressure, with Australia and Canada threatening to pull out, and postponed the Games.

As COVID-19 cases spiked in Japan, public support for the Games dwindled significantly.

One poll conducted as late as in May showed that 85 per cent of respondents wanted a cancellation, or a further postponement, of the Games.

The Games, which was supposed to unite a people, therefore ended up becoming one of the most divisive subjects in Japan and beyond.

There was also the strangeness of competing in a near-empty edifice.

Usually, athletes thrive on the cheers and roars from the stands, but Tokyo 2020 was different.

Contingents were restricted to their bubbles at the Games Village and spectators were not allowed entry.

Many Japanese said watching the Games on television while being hosted in their country brought no incentive and made no difference.

In terms of cost, the Japanese government spent over 20 billion dollars, from an initial budget of 15.4 billion dollars, to host the Games.

This led to many Japanese questioning the economic benefit of such expenditure.

Indeed, the entire value chain around tourism would have benefitted from Japan hosting the Olympics, but this was not to be as tourists and spectators were banned from attending the Games.

So, what would have been one of the greatest Olympic Games in history unfortunately lacked one of its most important ingredients —- the crowds!

However, just like during the Cold War, politics reared its head at Tokyo 2020 to give the sports world one of the ugly aspects of the event.

Belarus sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya, 24, voiced fears for her safety after she was ordered back home on Aug. 1.

After a formal investigation, the IOC expelled two Belarusian coaches from the Games over their roles in the saga.

Timanovskaya was granted a Polish visa and her husband, Arseniy Zdanevich, has also fled Belarus to Ukraine from where he is expected to join the athlete in Poland.

And, of course, the ugliest chain of events at Tokyo 2020 was reserved for Team Nigeria.

First, 10 Nigerian athletes were disqualified by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) from competing at the Games after they failed to undergo mandatory tests ahead of the global sports event.

The disqualified athletes took to the streets of Tokyo to protest the negligence by Nigerian sports administrators, which led to a disastrous end to their Olympic dreams.

To put the figure into a shameful perspective, only 20 athletes were so disqualified out of a total of 11,090, and for 10 of them to come from one country leaves much to be desired.

As if that was not enough, one of Team Nigeria’s medal hopefuls, Blessing Okagbare, was provisionally suspended from the Games.

An out-of-competition sample collected from Okagbare tested positive for Human Growth Hormone (HGH), a prohibited substance on the 2021 WADA Prohibited List.

The woes continued for Team Nigeria as another medal hopeful, Divine Oduduru, was disqualified from the men’s 100m event for false start.

Nigeria’s tale of woes at Tokyo 2020 took its final nail in the stories surrounding a form of breach of contract.

Sportswear giant PUMA threatened to sue the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development for allegedly violating a 2.76 million dollars deal reached in 2019.

The controversy over kits has further reinforced the internal strife in the AFN, which has led to the factionalisation of the federation.

But the controversy did well to underline the usual phenomenon with Team Nigeria, that of one scandal or the other at every Games, with Olympics history replete with several of such.

However, the Tokyo Games which some might have wittingly labelled the “Masked Games” in view of the compulsory use of masks at all venues did well to live up to expectations.

It did serve its purpose — that of uniting the world, giving the athletes the room to express themselves after many years of preparations and keeping the Games in its place as the world’s biggest sporting spectacle.

More important is the fact that it has helped to keep the next edition — Paris 2024 — in our mind, especially with the fact that it is just three years away. (NANFeatures)