Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony set to end imperfect, irrepressible games

Host nation Japan made it to the top 5 with 56 medals, nearly half of which were gold, according to the latest NBC News tally.

Masa Takaya, a Games spokesperson who spent much of the Olympics answering tough questions about the coronavirus and other controversies from skeptical journalists, did not try to hide his satisfaction during the press briefing. Friday daily.

“It’s important that athletes from all countries do their best, but it’s also good to see athletes on home soil doing well,” he said.

They secured their most expensive medal of the lot early Saturday, ruling out the United States for the baseball mad nation’s first ever gold in the sport.

Japan hosted the world’s largest sporting celebration in the face of a plague that has infected more than 200 million people and killed 4.3 million people worldwide, and – powered by the delta variant – has started to spread to Tokyo at a record pace just as the Games were getting underway.

History will judge whether these Olympic Games were a success. But this we can say with certainty:

These are the Games where gymnastics star Simone Biles won a team silver medal, bronze on balance beam and a gold legacy on and off the mat after shocking the world by withdrawing from some key events to focus on their mental health. .

These are the Games where established stars Allyson Felix and Katie Ledecky added to their medal crop and a constellation of new Olympic Games stars emerged, including swimmer Caeleb Dressel, surfer Carissa Moore, gymnast Suni Lee and female runners. Sydney McLaughlin and Molly Seidel.

The U.S. women’s football team failed in their quest for another gold, but veteran forward Alex Morgan – one of the many stars of this golden generation who may have played in their last Games Olympics – told NBC News she was proud of her hard-earned victory. Equipment.

“We are really happy to have won a bronze medal,” said Morgan.

The US men’s basketball team, led by Kevin Durant, beat a formidable French team to win a fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal and solidify America’s status as a world basketball powerhouse.

The Americans have also met Olympic heroes from unlikely places, like Alaskan teenager Lydia Jacoby, who won gold in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke and is from a state with exactly one Olympic-size pool. – for which she could not train. months because of the Covid-19.

They cheered on kids competing in the Olympics, like 15-year-old American swimmer Katie Grimes and a litany of skateboarding teens, including 13-year-old Japanese champion Momiji Nishiya. They’ve also cheered on age-defying athletes like American basketball player Sue Bird, 40, and equestrian rider Phillip Dutton, 57.

These were the Games where a Belarusian sprinter challenged her country’s authoritarian ruler by criticizing her coaches, escaping assistants trying to send her home to an airport in the Tokyo area and finding refuge in Poland.

Other female athletes stood up – or knelt – for Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, and revolted against having to compete in revealing outfits.

The Games opened to protests in Tokyo and broad opposition from the Japanese people, who feared an influx of athletes from overseas would worsen the Covid crisis at home, but who were nonetheless welcoming to the thousands of visitors who were among them.

There were Olympic displays of kindness and class – runners Isaiah Jewett from the United States and Nigel Amos from Botswana each helped each other up after tangling and falling in the 800m semi-finals, while high jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi from Italy and Mutaz Barshim from Qatar embraced with joy as they agreed to share a gold medal.

But there was also the Olympic collapse of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic who broke his racket in frustration after failing to win a medal and missed his chance to become the first man to win the Golden Slam – four titles. of the Grand Slam and an Olympic gold medal in the same year.

Algerian judo Fethi Nourine challenged the Olympic ideal by withdrawing from competition rather than fighting an Israeli. And in what could be an Olympic first, a trainer for the modern German pentathlon team was kicked out of the Games for hitting a horse that was reluctant to jump.

Just three weeks ago, the Tokyo Games seemed to implode.

Key members of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee have been stunned by a scandal. Polls showed that a solid majority of Japanese people still oppose the Olympics. One of its biggest sponsors, Toyota Motor Corp., withdrew its local TV commercials for fear of being forever linked to an event that seemed certain to sink into infamy. And then came the constant stream of reports that athletes were testing positive for Covid-19 and testing assurances from Japanese leaders that the Games would be “safe and secure.”

Olympics historian Jeremy Fuchs told NBC News at the time that “there has never been an entirely happy Olympics” and that the Games have at times been overshadowed by controversial debates over human rights. man and politics, even by overspending.

“But I think this controversy is truly unprecedented,” Fuchs said. “I think you would be hard pressed to find an example in history where the citizens of a host country are so unhappy.”

In an interview with NBC News on the eve of the Tokyo Olympics, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga admitted it was difficult to sell the event to his people. But he said the Games would continue.

And they did.