Tokyo says goodbye to games gracefully and comfortably | Tokyo Olympics 2020

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Farewell, Tokyo 2020. On a sweltering night in the Olympic Stadium, Japan bid farewell to its turbulent and wonderful games softly with a closing ceremony that was elegant, dreary, and unwanted. Not to mention, in the great Olympic tradition, it’s full of schmaltz and corporate double-speak.

At 10 p.m. local time, the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, appeared on the lighted podium to announce the closure of Tokyo 2020 – and to offer something else, too, to press for its place in history.

“Dear athletes, for the past 16 days, you have amazed us,” Bach told his television audiences around the world, as he came as the irresistible rainmaker in irresistible company in a turquoise tie, a light blue suit and a crisp white mask, flanked by his traditional hand. Handsome youth draped in medals.

“You created the magic of this Olympic Games, Tokyo 2020. You were stronger because we stood together in solidarity.” There is a stressful Olympic bingo game to these cliches, these statements that elevate these statements. But for all the usual elements of peace, things of unity, there was an added urgency here as Bach used his closing remarks to apply the gloss of the IOC to the way these games would be remembered in a time of plague.

Tokyo has been a warm, kind and resourceful host, but also a troubled one. Outside the stadium, there were street protests and cries of “No Olympics” as delegates, losers, and team members eventually left the show. The show of discontent was orderly but resolute, indicating the anger many people felt as this global event kicked off in a city where the line between contagion and control is already thinning.

“You were competing very hard with each other in pursuit of the Olympic gold medal,” Bach continued. “At the same time you were living together in peace. This is a powerful message of solidarity and peace. For the first time since the pandemic began, the whole world has come together. Sport is back in center stage… and it gives us hope. It gives us faith in the future.” Do you though? As always, these occasions tend to bring up other questions.

Questions like, What is the purpose of the Olympics actually? Why, exactly, do we do this? The Olympics still like to brand themselves as a “movement”, an arm of international relations, and a force for fellowship and joy, unlike the big-brand corporate circus, for example. The insistence on these superior qualities stems from the burden the Games place on Freezers to host and finance them. The cost of this empty host stadium is $1.3 billion (£0.9 billion). There must also be magic dust.

This kind of talk might have had more weight with critics of the Olympic-industrial complex were it not for the fact that this celebration of love, which took place recently in Azerbaijan and Russia, is trending alongside China at the Winter Games. But don’t bother with that now. Just look at the lights.

“The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are the Olympics of hope, unity and peace,” Bach concluded, after deceptively asserting that the reason for organizing Tokyo 2020 at such a dangerous time was to fulfill the wishes of the athletes, on the contrary. Commercial contracts carry devastating losses.

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However, as every top sports executive knows, something in this human landscape will always keep us coming back for more. Bach showed up at the Olympic Arena two hours ago as inspirational music swelled and an exciting blue sheen spread across the layers of this renovated ghost stadium. The parade was stately, polite and stately, and the central area was provided with an arrangement of plinths and platforms, as well as the Olympic torch itself at one end, jumped from a kind of mashed dinosaur eggs.

For most of the hours that followed, this was a party elegantly dressed up, commemorative rather than ceremonial. At first, the Japanese flag was moved to the ring very slowly, with a poignant sense of solemn calm.

This was followed by the flags of the competing nations, and the flags of Great Britain carried by Laura Kenny, now the most decorated British Olympian ever. And the night steadily faded into a kind of medley of world music, from rumba to flute to jazz funk bass, as athletes came jumping onto the field, applauded heartily by a row of judges who, besides dancing like your aunt at Christmas, seemed to spend Really great time.

For a while the stadium looked like human fantasy, a whirl of colors and marching music – barks and barks, bagpipes, klaxons, strange gurgling sounds. Volunteers passed by, waving to the crowd and giving a standing ovation. It’s hard to do justice to the Tokyo 2020 volunteer army, who have been endlessly warm, sober and patient with this uncooperative human mayhem, all in a Games that many Tokyo residents don’t want.

Reviews of athletes around the stadium. Photo: Joel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Nations came and went. Team Russia (not Russia) camera board.

The oddity of Russia being here in such numbers despite the apparent doping ban – another bleak IOC epic, smearing the sports tasked with preserving it – was never the athletes’ fault. This was just a group of happy young men who had the best time of their lives.

And now the central carpet was crammed with all the flags of the world, glowing examples of physical splendor, of the power of species. Well, people of the universe. We are ready to be near you now. That’s a lot out there under the spotlight. This is what we love. Tokyo 2020 has been at its best in that way, not only stunning but also soothing, a reminder that the world can also be a fun place.

As the torch was delivered via video link to Paris 2024, a skyline captured in stunningly beautiful film, this duplication was once again difficult to avoid.

For all the talk of a new “sustainable” Olympics, the world’s largest industrial sporting event will continue to be played with excessive spending, waste and questionable regulations. Men will appear on the plinth talking about peace and love while the noise of the stadium drowns out screams outside its walls.

Tokyo will now breathe again, at the end of 14 days of fierce competition devoid of spectators, from rhythmic gymnastics to a two-person boat, from the fastest humans on earth to the 87kg. This subtly alluring chaos of a world class sports piano says one last goodbye – gracefully and lively, but also with a sense of comfort.

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