As the Tokyo Games begin, the stakes could not be higher for Japan — and the Olympics themselves
22 July 2021; A general view of the Olympic Rings at Odaiba Marine Park, under the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower, ahead of the start of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
History shows there is nothing in sport quite like an Olympics. Equally, there is nothing in Olympic history quite like what is happening now in Tokyo at the most expensive — and likely the most fraught — summer games of all time.
When Tokyo bid for the games a decade ago, many of the political elite saw the Olympics as a way to promote Japan 2.0. The games would reinvigorate a country beset by nuclear and natural disasters, economic stagnation and geopolitical concerns about China’s rise.
