They called them the Ghost Games. Empty stadiums: the world’s sports fans nowhere to be seen, the city streets completely deserted.
All in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century.
Just days ago, the Tokyo Olympics looked set to be the most underwhelming Games in history. Outside the competitors — who had already been forced to wait a year — or the ever-rapacious International Olympic Committee, nobody seemed to want them to take place at all, not least the nation fated to host them.
Barely 20 per cent of the Japanese are double-jabbed, and many were understandably terrified of the horrors such a busy event would wreak on their country.
On top of all that, in the run-up to these Games, it seemed that everything was going wrong.
Take Tom Daley, the diver who first sprang to prominence when he qualified for the Beijing games aged just 13. For young Tom, fame at such a tender young age came at a price. Pictured, Daley and Matty Lee with their gold numbers
Celebration
Devastated athletes were forced to pull out after testing positive for the virus in the moments before the contest began. So, too, did sponsors.
Tragedy descended into farce when, just hours before the opening ceremony, the entertainer Kentaro Kobayashi, who was due to host the event, was sacked after a video clip emerged of him making an anti-Semitic joke in the 1990s.
When the Olympic cauldron spectacularly burst into flames last Thursday, many of the countless millions watching around the world could be forgiven for wondering if they were witnessing the start of a £13 billion flop.
But my goodness — what a difference a few days make.
Empty seats are pictured in Tokyo Aquatics Centre ahead of a swimming event during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
Far from being the damp squib so many anticipated, Tokyo 2020 has suddenly turned into the feel-good event of the year: the boost we didn’t know we needed.
After the horrors of Covid, the world has suddenly joined in unanimous celebration — although, it must be said, some nations have earned the right to celebrate a little more than others. Team GB, for one, has enjoyed the best start to our Olympics ever.
Our bountiful haul of medals — 13 when the Mail went to press last night — are not just testament to the dedication and excellence of our athletes. In some cases, they represent extraordinary feats of triumph over adversity.
Take Tom Daley, the diver who first sprang to prominence when he qualified for the Beijing games aged just 13. For young Tom, fame at such a tender young age came at a price.
Nick Gillingham of Great Britain viewed his time after finishing the men's 200m Breastroke finals at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996
At school, he was the victim of bullies. Worse pain was to follow when his father, Rob, died of cancer, aged just 40, the year before the Games were hosted in London.
Tom then landed a bronze, a feat he repeated four years later in Rio.
During all that, he came out as gay and started raising a child with his husband.
When, on Monday, he finally collected his gold for the synchronised event with his diving partner Matty Lee, those butter-wouldn’t-melt eyes welling with tears, many wept with him.
Then there’s swimmer Tom Dean, who yesterday became the first British man to win an Olympic freestyle event in 113 years. In January, he was forced to spend seven weeks off training after catching Covid for the second time. He was reportedly so ill six months ago, that he could barely climb stairs — yet somehow his ability to turn calamity into glory captures the tone of these Games.
Gold Medalist Tom Dean of Great Britain celebrates winning the 200m freestyle final of the swimming competition of the Tokyo 2020
