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The delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics got here to an finish on Sunday, with a closing ceremony that marked the end of what’s going to endlessly be remembered because the COVID Video games.
Israel marked historic wins and achievements over the 17 days of competitors, with its best-ever Olympic exhibiting. Arriving on the video games with simply seven medals in its historical past, the Jewish state took house 4 extra together with two gold — its second and third ever.
Unprecedented challenges
IOC chief Thomas Bach mentioned on the Video games’ closing that it had been the “most difficult Olympic journey” after a 12 months’s pandemic delay and threats of cancellation.
Bach referred to as the Tokyo Video games “unprecedented” as he addressed the 68,000-seat Olympic Stadium, which was empty of spectators as Japan battles a file coronavirus outbreak.
“In these tough occasions we’re all dwelling by way of, you give the world probably the most valuable of presents: hope,” the Worldwide Olympic Committee president informed athletes on the ceremony.
It marked a low-key finish to a unprecedented Olympics which have largely performed out in empty venues with solely athletes, workforce officers and media current.
Artem Dolgopyat of Israel celebrates after profitable the gold medal on the ground train within the inventive gymnastics males’s ultimate on the 2020 Summer season Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021, in Tokyo. (AP Picture/Natacha Pisarenko)
Athletes have lived in strict biosecure circumstances with social distancing on the Olympic Village and directions to put on masks until consuming, sleeping, coaching or competing.
Because the Olympic flag was handed to Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo for the 2024 Video games, dwell footage confirmed cheering crowds within the French capital — in stark distinction to Tokyo.
Bach has described how the IOC thought-about canceling the Olympics and claiming the prices on its insurance coverage coverage however mentioned officers plowed forward with holding the Video games “for the athletes.”
Unprecedented wins
On the primary day of the competitors, Israel’s Avishag Semberg took house a shock bronze in Taekwondo, setting the tone for Israeli achievements. And whereas Israel’s closely favored judokas had been felled one after the other of their particular person matches, they rallied collectively within the combined workforce occasion — making its Olympic debut this 12 months — to place a bronze medal round every of their necks.
Israel’s Avishag Semberg celebrates together with her bronze medal on the rostrum after profitable a bronze medal in taekwondo on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Video games on July 24, 2021. (Javier Soriano/AFP)
And when the gymnastics competitions kicked off, two Israelis fought their method to the highest to listen to “Hatikvah” echo within the stadium in Tokyo: Artem Dolgopyat, who gained gold within the males’s inventive gymnastics flooring routine, and Linoy Ashram, who took the highest spot within the ladies’s rhythmic gymnastics all-around competitors.
Till this 12 months, Israel had by no means gained greater than two medals at any particular person Olympics. It despatched a record-breaking 90 athletes to Tokyo this 12 months, virtually double 2016’s excessive of 47 individuals in Rio.
Even off the rostrum, Israel set various information and notched quite a few accomplishments. Matan Roditi, Israel’s first-ever Olympic open-water swimmer, got here in fourth within the 10km race, exceeding his personal expectations and marking a brand new excessive for Israeli swimmers. Marhu Teferi got here in thirteenth within the males’s marathon early Sunday morning, setting an Israeli file for an Olympic marathon end. Anastasia Gorbenko grew to become the primary Israeli feminine swimmer to qualify for an Olympic ultimate, and bicycle owner Omer Shapira was up forward in the course of the ladies’s biking highway race till she was caught by the pack within the ultimate minutes.
There have been some disappointments for Group Israel as properly: runner Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, who gained the Tokyo 2020 Marathon and was a favourite to medal on Saturday, needed to pause the race as a consequence of abdomen pains and finally completed 66th, after main the pack for a lot of the way in which. And whereas Israel’s equestrian workforce made its Olympic debut this 12 months, rivals in each the person and workforce present leaping fell off their horses and had been eradicated. Windsurfing medal favourite Katy Spychakov finally completed in sixth place total.
From left, silver medalist Dina Averina, of Russian Olympic Committee, gold medalist Linoy Ashram, of Israel, and bronze medalist Alina Harnasko, of Belarus, stand on the rostrum after the rhythmic gymnastics particular person all-around ultimate on the 2020 Summer season Olympics, on Saturday, August 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP/Ashley Landis)
Alongside equestrian contests, Israel additionally made its Olympic debut in Tokyo in archery, baseball and browsing. Archer Itay Shanny defied all the percentages to complete ninth total, after beating out opponents who had been ranked considerably increased than him. Israel’s much-hyped baseball workforce completed its Cinderella-like run in fifth out of six groups total, placing up a struggle towards stiff competitors.
Drama on the sidelines
As all the time, politics performed a task on the Video games on quite a few fronts, together with some involving Israel. Two judokas — Sudan’s Mohamed Abdalrasool and Algeria’s Fethi Nourine — pulled out of their competitions so as to keep away from dealing with Israeli Tohar Butbul.
However there have been additionally some glimmers of hope. Regardless of a wealth of hypothesis, Saudi judoka Tahani Alqahtani confirmed as much as her battle towards Israeli Raz Hershko, and the pair shook fingers after their match, which Hershko gained. And Iranian basketball coach Mehran Shahintab shook fingers with the coach of the Czech Republic workforce throughout their recreation, regardless of Ronen Ginzburg being Israeli.
Tahani Al-Qahtani of Saudi Arabia, left, and Raz Hershko of Israel shake fingers after competing of their ladies’s +78kg elimination spherical judo match on the 2020 Summer season Olympics, Friday, July 30, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Picture/Vincent Thian)
The video games marked one other first: An official commemoration in the course of the opening ceremony for the 11 Israelis murdered in a terrorist assault on the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Households of the Munich victims had campaigned for years for larger public recognition for the lifeless from the Worldwide Olympic Committee, and widows Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano, who led the cost, had been readily available in the course of the ceremony in Tokyo.
Different highlights
Whereas the Tokyo Video games will undoubtedly be remembered as being held largely with none spectators amid the worldwide coronavirus disaster, many different elements made headlines around the globe.
One of many greatest tales of the competitors was Simone Biles, who shocked the world when she introduced that she was pulling out of most of her occasions so as to give attention to her psychological well being. She returned for only one occasion — the steadiness beam — and took house a bronze medal, which she mentioned meant greater than all her golds.
Host nation Japan had its finest Olympic exhibiting in each class: its most gold medals (27), its most total (58), and a third-place end in gold medals behind two a lot bigger nations — the US and China. General, the US took house probably the most Olympic medals (113), adopted by China (88) and the Russian Olympic Committee (71).
Simone Biles, of the US, performs on the steadiness beam in the course of the inventive gymnastics ladies’s equipment ultimate on the 2020 Summer season Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Picture/Ashley Landis)
The IOC’s Bach mentioned two days earlier than the shut that the Tokyo Video games “far exceeded my private expectations,” as a result of when spectators had been barred as a pandemic precaution he feared “these Olympic Video games may change into an Olympic Video games with out soul.”
As an alternative, Bach mentioned, he discovered the intimacy within the empty venues made for an intense ambiance. “In lots of circumstances you didn’t notice that there have been no spectators,” he mentioned. “Perhaps in some circumstances you possibly can even expertise the emotions of the athletes nearer and higher than being surrounded by so many spectators.”
Off the sphere, probably the most distinguished tales was Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who was virtually pressured on a airplane again to Belarus after publicly criticizing her coaches. Tsimanouskaya managed to enlist Japanese police to forestall her from being pressured onto the airplane, and finally succeeded in searching for asylum in Poland.
Winter is coming
Politics will undoubtedly play a task within the 2022 Winter Video games in Beijing, China, that are set to kick off in simply six months, and can seemingly additionally face a wave of COVID challenges.
Members of Israel’s workforce pose with their bronze medals after the medal ceremony in workforce judo competitors on the 2020 Summer season Olympics, on July 31, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Picture/Vincent Thian)
Beijing is Japan’s rival in East Asia and residential to an authoritarian authorities that’s anticipated to manage its Video games in a extra draconian and restrictive means, virus or no virus.
Israel, not precisely identified for its chilly temperatures, has by no means gained a medal at any Winter Olympic Video games, nevertheless it has despatched a delegation to each competitors since 1994. This 12 months shall be no exception, though the dimensions and make-up of the delegation has but to be decided.
And even when “Hatikvah” gained’t ring out in Beijing in February, a lot of Israel’s athletes have already set their websites on the video games that at the moment are simply three years away: Paris 2024.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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