Olympics historian: Tokyo may have gone 'near the top of best organized' Games if not for pandemic

(Image credit: Rob Carr/Getty Images)

published 8 August 2021

That's a wrap on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The closing ceremony took place in Tokyo on Sunday and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach declared the Games officially over. While it was certainly one of the strangest Olympics in recent memory, Bach said his fears that it would become the "Olympic Games without a soul" because of a lack of fans were not realized.

There likely won't be a consensus on whether the two-week event was a success, or even how to measure success given the fact that it took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Olympic historian David Wallechinsky, who was attending his 19th games, may have summed it up best when he told The New York Times that "if it hadn't been for the pandemic, this would go right up near the top of the best organized Olympics."

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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