Tokyo 2020

Tokyo 2020 was the first Olympic Games in history to be postponed for a year, the first of the Covid-19 era, with masks, social distancing and strict protocols adopted for athletes and officials.
After a year’s wait, Japan hosted its second Summer Olympics after the 1964 Olympics – its fourth ever if the two Winter Olympics of Sapporo 1972 and Nagano 1998 are also considered. Italia Team were led out by the twin flag-bearers, the Olympic shooting champion Jessica Rossi and Olympic track cyclist Elia Viviani. It was the first Games with the new Olympic motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”.
More than 11,000 athletes representing 205 NOCs (with Russia competing as the Russian Olympic Committee) and the IOC Refugee Team competed in 42 competitions (almost all held “behind closed doors”) of the 33 sports in the programme.
The Japanese edition, which kept the name Tokyo 2020 in spite of being held in 2021, looked to the future, presenting the world with a younger, more urban and environmentally friendly version of the Games, with even the Olympic medals made from recycled materials.
The mascot of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad was Miraitowa, a name made up of the Japanese words “mirai”, meaning literally “future”, and “towa” meaning “eternity”, in reference to the Japanese proverb “learning from the past to develop new ideas”.
Five disciplines were added to the Olympic programme: sport climbing, baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding and surfing.
At 13 years and 330 days, Japan’s Momiji Nishiya, a skateboarding champion, was the youngest gold medallist in Tokyo; at 12, the other Japanese skateboarder Kokona Hiraki was the youngest medallist of the edition.
The record-breaking Italia Team lining up in Japan, will go down in history for its record total number of athletes (384), as well as for being the strongest. Never had it been so successful: capable of clinching medals on a daily basis at the Japanese event, like never before.
The Italian “haul” was also a record: 40 medals (10 golds, 10 silvers and 20 bronzes) that give Italy a top ten place in the world’s competitive arena, with the highest number of podiums among European Union countries (and seventh place overall for number of medals).
The world’s fastest man was Italian athlete Marcell Jacobs, two-time Olympic champion in the 100 metres and the 4x100 relay, flag-bearer at the closing ceremony and protagonist of a magical evening in which Gianmarco Tamberi also brought home a gold in high jump, shared with Qatari Mutaz Barshim.
But Italy was a protagonist in all fields of competition, garnering medals in 19 different disciplines. Vito dell'Aquila, gold in taekwondo, was the first Italian born in the 2000s to win an Olympic medal. Irma Testa, Giorgia Bordignon and Lucilla Boari (all bronze winners) were the first female medallists in boxing, weightlifting and archery; Vanessa Ferrari, silver, the first individual medallist in gymnastics; Federica Cesarini and Valentina Rodini scooped the first Italian gold in lightweight double sculls; Caterina Banti and Ruggero Tita took the first Italian gold in a mixed event in Nacra 17; Luigi Busà was the first Italian Olympic champion in the new karate category.
Swimming equalled the record of medals (six) of Sydney 2000, with first ever podiums in the 4x100 SL relay (silver) and 4x100 mixed relay (bronze) and the medals of Gregorio Paltrinieri who, clinching a silver and a bronze, became the first swimmer to win a medal in the same edition of the Games both in the pool and open water.
Queen of the Games, however, was Italian athletics with five golds, a feat previously unachieved. In addition to Jacobs and Tamberi, mentioned above, were the 4x100 relay for Patta, Jacobs himself, Desalu and Tortu, and the twin golds in race walking for Antonella Palmisano and Massimo Stano.
But Tokyo 2020 will hold a special place not just for Italian sport. It was also the Games in which Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah became the first female sprinter to defend the 100m and 200m titles; it will also be remembered for Australian swimmer Emma McKeon, who with five medals in a single edition equalled the record of medals won by Mariya Gorokhovskaya. A unique edition that finished up with the torch on the way back to Europe: 2024 will be the turn of Paris.