How will the Tokyo Olympics be experienced?

The Olympics have always oscillated between two opposites. On the one hand, they are a celebration of peace among peoples. It is no coincidence that they have often been a means of pressure and political claim, used by both nations and individual athletes. Sport is not neutral, it is not true that the important thing is to participate, nations use sport to affirm their vision of the world. This is absolutely acceptable as long as the rights of all are respected. Our culture of Olympic sports has its roots in classical Greece for which sport was next to other forms of development of people. At the same time, for every athlete, the Olympics represent the most important opportunity to affirm their value on a global level, it is the greatest showcase to which an athlete can aspire. On the other hand, the Olympics, along with the World Cup and the Tour de France, are the world’s top sporting events. The Tokyo Olympics will represent something different from previous ones.

Meanwhile, the athletes come from a year of pandemic, a year without competitions and for some sports there have been few opportunities to qualify (table tennis for example has had in 2021 only two qualifying tournaments). In some ways the selection of participants has been unfair and many of those excluded are already preparing for the upcoming Paris 2024 which is only a little over two years away. Secondly, the restrictions imposed by Japan during the stay in Tokyo will be very strict and therefore there will be no interviews and press conferences before and after the competitions and this certainly penalizes the sports and athletes with less visibility during the quadrennium. Finally, there will be no audience and we have all experienced its absence during the soccer championship. The lack of fans will be an aspect that could negatively affect many performances, selling out the enthusiasm that the public obviously determines. In a few days we will know what will happen, however, it remains true that most of the athletes / despite these differences will be focused on providing the performance of their lives.