TOKYO — A tropical storm swept into the city before dawn, gusts of wind bringing heavy clouds and drenching rain, as if the Tokyo Olympics didn’t have enough problems.
The COVID-19 pandemic had forced a year’s postponement and, with much of Japan still in a state of emergency, cancellation remained possible to the last moment.
Even as the massive sporting event lurched ahead, spectators were banned, leaving athletes to compete in eerily quiet stadiums and arenas.
“Some were already speaking of a ghost Games,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said.
On Sunday, with inclement weather threatening to ruin the closing ceremony, the sky lifted and brightened by late afternoon.
After 17 rocky days, these Summer Games had once again found a way to get by. As 100-meter champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy said: “Finally we’ve managed to do it, so that’s a positive way to look at it.”
For their goodbye show, local organizers transformed Olympic Stadium into one of Tokyo’s well-known city parks, covering the field with swaths of real grass and pathways. Kids skateboarded, people did yoga, bicycle riders whizzed past.
If the scene attempted to evoke a sense of normalcy, it also reinforced the extraordinary and often contradictory nature of the Tokyo Games.
A hint of sadness marked the last three weeks, with no crowds buzzing outside stadiums, no fans gathering in central plazas, nothing to make it feel special.
The Olympic cauldron, displayed on a popular esplanade, was surrounded by blue-shirted volunteers who — because of coronavirus restrictions on crowding — barked over loudspeakers, telling people not to stop, to keep walking.
The competition sometimes felt just as sterile, like sports in a laboratory. Reverse somersaults, double layouts and 3-point shots were greeted with silence or, worse, the echoed clapping of a half-dozen teammates.
“I’m not going to lie,” said Lilly King, a U.S. swimmer who won silver and bronze. “It’s a little strange.” Making all of this work required masks, daily saliva tests and, in some instances, quarantines. Winners had to pick up their own medal to put around their neck. Yet athletes continually expressed both gratitude for the chance to compete and a willingness to adapt.
“I never surrender to the circumstances,” Russian fencer Larisa Korobeynikova said. “I always believed that the Olympics would take place and that is what exactly happened and [it was] fantastic.”
For the Americans, swimmer Caeleb Dressel excelled, as did gymnast Suni Lee and the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
“This one feels good because we went through a lot,” NBA star Kevin Durant said. “COVID, the kind of bubble we were in, no fans, no one expecting us to lose.”
