Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony set to bring imperfect, irrepressible games to an end

Host nation Japan made the highest 5 with 58 medals, almost half of them gold, based on the newest NBC News tally.

Masa Takaya, a spokesman for the Video games who has spent a lot of the Olympics fielding tough questions on the coronavirus and other controversies from skeptical reporters, didn’t attempt to disguise his satisfaction at Friday’s day by day information briefing.

“It is essential that athletes from each nation carry out their greatest, but in addition good to see athletes from the house soil doing nicely,” he mentioned.

They secured their most cherished medal of the lot early Saturday, shutting out the U.S. to win the baseball-mad country’s first ever gold within the sport.

Japan mounted the world’s largest sporting celebration within the face of a plague that has contaminated more than 200 million people and killed 4.3 million world wide, and — propelled by the delta variant — started spreading by way of Tokyo at a report fee simply because the Video games have been getting underway.

Historical past will choose whether or not these Olympics have been a hit. However this a lot we are able to say for positive:

These have been the Video games the place gymnastics star Simone Biles took home a team silver medal, a bronze for the balance beam, and a golden legacy on and off the mat after she shocked the world by pulling out of some key occasions to deal with her psychological well being.

These have been the Video games when established stars Allyson Felix and Katie Ledecky added to their medal hauls and a constellation of latest Olympics stars emerged, like swimmer Caeleb Dressel, surfer Carissa Moore, gymnast Suni Lee and runners Sydney McLaughlin and Molly Seidel.

The U.S. ladies’s soccer team fell short of their pursuit of one other gold medal, however veteran striker Alex Morgan — one among many stars of this golden generation who might have performed of their final Olympics — instructed NBC Information they’re pleased with their hard-earned {hardware}.

“We’re actually joyful that we got here away with a bronze medal,” Morgan mentioned.

The U.S. men’s basketball team, led by Kevin Durant, defeated a formidable French squad to carry residence a fourth straight Olympic gold and cement America’s standing because the world’s pre-eminent basketball energy.

Then the U.S. women’s basketball team, led by Brittney Griner, defeated a scrappy Japanese crew to safe America’s seventh straight Olympic gold medal on this occasion.

Individuals have been additionally launched to Olympic heroes from unlikely locations, like Alaska teen Lydia Jacoby, who gained gold within the ladies’s 100-meter breast stroke and hails from a state with precisely one Olympic-sized swimming pool — which she couldn’t prepare in for months due to Covid-19.

They cheered on the youngsters competing within the Olympics, like 15-year-old U.S. swimmer Katie Grimes, and a litany of skateboarding teens, together with Japan’s 13-year-old champion Momiji Nishiya. They cheered on age-defying athletes, too, like U.S. ladies’s basketball participant Sue Bird, who’s 40, equestrian rider Phillip Dutton, 57, and Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina, who at age 46 is the oldest Olympic gymnast in historical past.

These have been the Video games the place a Belarusian sprinterdefied her nation’s authoritarian chief by criticizing her coaches, escaped the handlers trying to send her home at a Tokyo-area airport, and located sanctuary in Poland.

Different feminine athletes stood up — or took a knee — for Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, and revolted towards having to compete in revealing outfits.

The Video games opened to protests in Tokyo and broad opposition from the Japanese folks, who feared an inflow of athletes from overseas would worsen the Covid disaster at residence, however who have been however welcoming to the hundreds of holiday makers of their midst.

There have been Olympic shows of kindness and sophistication — runners Isaiah Jewett of the U.S. and Nigel Amos of Botswana helped every to their toes after they bought tangled and fell in the course of the 800-meter semifinals, whereas excessive jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar embraced in delight as they agreed to share a gold medal.

However there was additionally the Olympic meltdown of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic smashing his racket in frustration after he did not medal and blew his likelihood of changing into the primary man to win the Golden Slam — 4 Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal in the identical 12 months.

Algerian judo competitor Fethi Nourine defied the Olympic superb by withdrawing from competitors relatively than battle an Israeli. And in what might be an Olympic first, a coach with the German trendy pentathlon crew was kicked out of the Games for punching a horse that balked at leaping.

Simply three weeks in the past, the Tokyo Video games appeared to be imploding.

Key members of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee have been knocked out by scandal. Polls confirmed a stable majority of Japanese have been nonetheless against the Olympics. Certainly one of its largest sponsors, Toyota Motor Corp., pulled its local TV ads lest or not it’s ceaselessly certain to an occasion that appeared sure to go down in infamy. After which got here the regular stream of reviews that athletes have been testing positive for Covid-19 and testing the assurances of Japan’s leaders that the Video games can be “secure and safe.”

Olympics historian Jeremy Fuchs instructed NBC Information on the time that “there’s by no means been a wholly joyful Olympics” and that the Video games have, at occasions, been overshadowed by contentious debates about human rights and politics, even extreme spending.

“However this a lot controversy I believe is actually unprecedented,” Fuchs mentioned. “I believe you’d be hard-pressed to search out an instance in historical past the place residents of a number nation are this sad.”

In an interview with NBC Information on the eve of the Tokyo Olympics, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga admitted it was a wrestle to promote the occasion to his folks. However he mentioned the Video games would go on.

They usually did.