Yesterday’s firing of the director of the Olympics opening ceremony over a joke he made about the Holocaust in 1998 has further burdened the atmosphere in Tokyo. That had been preceded by charges of rape, a scandal regarding intimidating a disabled person, and the disappearance of a weight lifter.

Yet, it is the pandemic that has cast the heaviest shadow on the “most complex” Games ever, as the president of the International Olympic Committee described them.

They were already postponed once last year, and if that were to happen again it would lead to their cancellation, with huge economic cost.

Hence, despite the dangers and the opposition of a large segment of the Japanese population, it was decided to hold the Games with empty stadiums and with all necessary security measures to avoid transmission of COVID-19.

Undoubtedly, these Games will be strange, as are the times in which we are living. They will be silent and only televised.

Once again, however, the best athletes in the world, including 83 young men and women from Greece, will have the opportunity to demonstrate their talent on the greatest athletic stage of the planet.

If all goes well, the fears, reservations, and concerns will be forgotten, and it will be proven once again that that athletics have their own dynamic, logic, and charm.

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