Why is athletes world closing down

And Tokyo's work is not finished; the Paralympics begin Aug. As the Olympics quietly closed up shop, it seemed Tokyo still had a complicated relationship with the Games.

Protests have continued, though the dissenters outside the Closing Ceremony were not as loud as they were during the Opening Ceremony.

Yet the spirit of omotenashi — the Japanese tradition of hospitality — flowed through the Games from start to finish.

Sunday, dozens of people gathered near Ariake Arena, the volleyball venue, to wave goodbye to busloads of visitors they never got a chance to meet. That is something we wanted to show to the world.

Complete coverage from Tokyo on our Olympics page. Rachel Blount is a sports reporter for the Star Tribune who covers a variety of topics, including the Olympics, Wild, college sports and horse racing. She has written extensively about Minnesota's Olympic athletes and has covered pro and college hockey since joining the staff in Home All Sections.

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While this study was limited to professional endurance athletes, the data has implications across all sports. Read more: The coronavirus seems to spare most kids from illness. But its effect on their mental health is deepening. Rebecca Mehra, a U. The cancellation of the Olympics—and of her race schedule—crushed her. I barely felt like running. The uncertainty of not knowing when this is going to end and being completely out of my control, it was something scary.

The good news: athletes like Gomes and Mehra proved resilient. Data from Strava showed that overall, athletes wound up actually increasing their physical exertion during the period of COVID restrictions: they exercised for an average of minutes per day during the shutdown period, compared to 92 minutes a day beforehand. As of Sunday, members of the Chinese delegation had returned to China, are in the middle of a day quarantine, with isolation sites also available for training.

Ignites passion for sports Following the games around the clock, cheering on the Chinese athletes and discussing their off-field anecdotes - without realizing it, the Chinese public is beaming with pride and their passion for sports has once again been ignited. That is the kind of change a successful international event should bring, observers said. The Olympics was undoubtedly the hottest topic on the Chinese internet for the entire 16 days of the event.

Among the top 50 trending topics on China's Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo, Olympic-related topics often occupied more than half the list. Such a high degree of heat reflects the passion of Chinese people for the Olympics. It also inspired patriotic feelings among Chinese people. The Chinese audience's attention to the Olympic Games goes beyond achievements and nationalities to focus more on the spark of humanity and the Olympic spirit itself.

During this year's Olympic Games, many international athletes were applauded by the Chinese public, including Latvian basketball player Edgars Krumins playing for gold with a broken ankle, Uzbekistan veteran Oksana Chusovitina making her eighth Olympic appearance, Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatar's Mutaz Barshim sharing the gold medal in the men's high jump, and year-old Syrian Hend Zaza playing for her war-stricken country.

All these moving sporting moments have further germinated the spirit of sports in the hearts of the Chinese, and this is the greatest significance of the Olympic Games, analysts said. Because the world saw the possibility of a successful event under the pandemic and the power that sport can bring to humanity, it also means expectations are higher for the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Zhang noted.

Tokyo inspires the world Unlike the opening ceremony, in the closing ceremony athletes did not enter in country order, but broke boundaries and entered the venue together, demonstrating unity. Moreover, the impact of the Games on athletes, spectators and the wider world will continue beyond the closing ceremony. For the athletes, it is the best interpretation of the Olympic spirit to be able to overcome many difficulties to stand on the stage of the highest event again.

Much more importantly, the whole world is inspired. In the midst of an epidemic that has torn governments and public opinion in many countries, the Olympic motto, which just added "together," conveys a spirit of global participation and cooperation, Da said. However, some Western politicians are already encouraging various "diplomatic boycotts" of the Beijing Winter Olympics and putting pressure on sponsors, which is political extremism and a major enemy of the Olympics and a major threat to the unity of human society.

But the Olympics will always play a positive role, preventing the spread of serious extremism, observers noted.