The Tokyo Games were a wake-up call for the mental health of Olympic athletes and a groundbreaking event for the LGBTQ community — but a big loss for NBC and anyone who wanted Russia to actually get punished for the doping scandal.
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Winners
Mental health awareness: Simone Biles’ withdrawal from gymnastics events generated significant public interest in mental health, and other Olympians also spoke openly about the topic. “Our understanding of and empathy for athletes will never be the same,” writes Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga.
LGBTQ community: Tokyo 2020 featured a record 182 Olympians publicly out as LGBTQ. They include Laurel Hubbard, the first openly transgender woman to compete; Quinn, the first transgender nonbinary gold medalist; and Tom Daley, who proudly said the words, “I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion.”
China: On the eve of the Games, the head of the Chinese Olympic Committee said, “We must resolutely ensure we are first in gold medals.” Mission accomplished.
Women: This was the most gender-equal Games ever, with women making up a record 49% of all participants. Women have won the majority of Team USA’s medals, and women’s events have driven 60% of betting action, per PointsBet.
Kuo Hsing-chun: Countries pay athletes varying sums of money for winning medals. No Tokyo Olympian got a bigger payday than Kuo of Taiwan, referred to as Chinese Taipei at the Games, who will receive roughly $760,000 for her weightlifting gold medal.
Losers
NBC: It was largely out of the network’s control, but broadcasting these Games wasn’t exactly a home run. Marquee events whose results were spoiled well before airing in prime time, plus masked faces and fan-less arenas, were brutal for ratings.
Olympic bans: If cheaters never prosper, how does the Russian Olympic Committee have the third-most medals entering Saturday? Somehow, the only real penalties for a state-sponsored doping scheme were that Russian athletes didn’t get to wear their flag during competition or hear their national anthem.
Record-holders: Olympic records have fallen at a record pace in Tokyo, erasing countless athletes from the history books. Technology has helped mainly in equipment-based sports (i.e. cycling), but other events are catching up, per The Economist (subscription).
Belarus: Sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya entered the spotlight after she was whisked away by the Belarusian government for criticizing her coaches. But with Timanovskaya safe after Poland offered her asylum, it’s now Belarus — and its authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko — that enter the spotlight.
Airbnb: The pandemic left sponsors in a tough spot, particularly those who had planned large-scale campaigns on the ground in Tokyo. Prime example: Airbnb, which had big aspirations as the Olympics’ official accommodation sponsor, only to see tourists banned.
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