• Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike thanked medical workers, volunteers and others who supported the staging of the safe and secure Olympics

TOKYO: The Tokyo Olympic Games came to an end Sunday night with the closing ceremony at the Japan National Stadium, which was held with the participation of athletes and related officials but without spectators amid the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

At the ceremony, the Olympic flame was extinguished to bring down the curtain on the 17-day competition and the Olympic baton was handed over to the next host city, Paris.

The Tokyo Olympics, originally scheduled for summer 2020, was postponed for the first time in Olympic history, due to the viral crisis.

“For the first time since the pandemic began, the entire world came together,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said at the closing ceremony. “The Olympic Games of Tokyo 2020 were the Olympic Games of hope, solidarity and peace. It was the ‘most challenging’ Games.”

Bach added, “On behalf of all the athletes, we say thank you Tokyo, thank you Japan.”

The 32nd Summer Games and the second Olympics in Tokyo brought together a total of about 11,000 athletes from 205 countries and regions, as well as a team of refugees, who competed in a record 339 events in 33 sports.

At the closing ceremony, athletes entered the field of the stadium from multiple gates in random order without being separated by their countries or regions. Some of them enjoyed taking photographs with their masks on, while others danced in a relaxed atmosphere.

Although the Olympic events were held almost as scheduled, they were influenced to some extent by the spread of COVID-19 and the scorching summer heat in Japan.

There were some athletes who could not compete because of having tested positive for the coronavirus, while the starting time was changed for some tennis, soccer and marathon events due to concerns over the impact of extreme heat on athletes’ health.

Spectators were banned at most venues, with Tokyo, three prefectures neighboring the Japanese capital and two other prefectures under a coronavirus state of emergency.

“It was very difficult to stage the Games while ensuring security and safety” for the participants at the same time, Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo Games organizing committee, told a press conference Sunday to sum up the Olympics.

“If asked whether the Olympics was a 100 pct success, I would say it was not,” Hashimoto said, referring to “many challenges” that faced the host city, which apparently included violations of coronavirus prevention rules.

Paris will host the Summer Games in 2024, exactly 100 years after last organizing the Olympics in 1924.

The closing ceremony featured the handover of the Olympic flag to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike first gave the flag to Bach, who passed it to the Paris mayor. The Tokyo venue was connected live to Paris, where a crowd of citizens cheered the arrival of the major sporting event.

In a statement issued for the media covering the closing ceremony, Koike thanked medical workers, volunteers and others who supported the staging of the safe and secure Olympics. “We’ll overcome the coronavirus crisis and carve out a bright future in which growth and maturity go together,” the governor said.

Japanese Crown Prince Akishino attended the ceremony on behalf of Emperor Naruhito.

The Tokyo Paralympics is set to open on Aug. 24. The athletic competition for disabled athletes will run through Sept. 5.

JIJI Press