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Gallery|Olympics

Tokyo’s closing ceremony ends pandemic Olympics

Tokyo 2020 Olympics marked by pandemic and by political, sporting, and personal turmoil draws to a close.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics closing ceremony ends a unique Games. [Toby Melville/Reuters]
Published On 8 Aug 20218 Aug 2021
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Tokyo doused its Olympic flame in a ceremony on Sunday that echoed the restraint of the games that played out without spectators and were defined and transformed by the global pandemic, dazzling sport and deeply personal turmoil.

Moments after the flame was extinguished in the Olympic Stadium, a volley of multicoloured fireworks lit up the night sky as athletes were already heading for the exits.

They were given a surreal glimpse of everyday Tokyo life when the closing ceremony was briefly transformed into a park with grass, buskers and BMX riders. Organisers said the scene was meant so they could “experience Tokyo”, a poignant nod to the fact that many spent their time at the games cooped up in rooms or competing in venues.

It was a duly odd closing to the games that were upended by the COVID-19 pandemic and then transformed by the drama of politics, sport and personal turmoil. The Tokyo Olympics were originally intended to show Japan’s recovery from a devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in 2011.

It was also in marked contrast to the far more festive park scene that played out in Paris, where several thousand sports fans waving the tricolour flag thronged into a fan zone across the river from the Eiffel Tower as the French capital prepared to take the Olympic baton from Tokyo for the 2024 Summer Games.

After being postponed for a year, organisers said the games would serve as a symbol of the world’s triumph over the pandemic. Held without spectators and with coronavirus variants resurgent, the games fell short of a triumph and the financial windfall Japan first sought.

Instead, the host nation is saddled with a $15bn bill, double what it initially expected, and with no tourist boom to offset it.

The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) thanked the Japanese people and touted the Olympics as a symbol of hope during a trying pandemic.

“Nobody has ever organised a postponed games before,” he said.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, make the sign of a heart with their hands during the closing ceremony in the Olympic Stadium. [Dan Mullen/Pool/AP Photo]
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The Tokyo 2020 Games were declared closed on Sunday by IOC chief Thomas Bach, who said it had been the 'most challenging Olympic journey' after a year's pandemic delay and threats of cancellation. [Thomas Peter/Reuters]
Artists perform during the closing ceremony in the Olympic Stadium. [Jae C Hong/AP Photo]
Bach called the Tokyo Games 'unprecedented' as he addressed the 68,000-seat Olympic Stadium, which was empty of spectators as Japan battles a record coronavirus outbreak. [Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters]
Athletes and team members pose as the closing ceremony comes to an end. [Dan Mullan/Pool/Reuters]
'In these difficult times we are all living through, you give the world the most precious of gifts: hope,' the IOC president told athletes at the ceremony. [Lee Jin-man/AP Photo]
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'And now I have to mark the end of this most challenging Olympic journey to Tokyo: I declare the Games of the 32nd Olympiad closed,' Bach said. [Dan Mullen/Pool/AP Photo]
People outside the stadium watch the fireworks during the closing ceremony. [Issei Kato/Reuters]
General view of the Olympic torch with the flags of Japan, Greece and France flying in the background. [Antonio Bronic/Reuters]


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