Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
On July 19, 1980, the Summer Olympics opened in Moscow with 66 nations led by the United States boycotting because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Games weren’t televised in this country, replaced by an eerie two-week hole in the sports calendar.
So consider the 2021 Tokyo Games officially, still the 2020 Tokyo Games the strangest Olympics many of us will have ever seen. It is, of course, a matter of COVID-19. Already, multiple non-U.S. athletes and at least one volunteer have tested positive inside the Olympic Village. According to NPR, “more than 45 people affiliated with the Games” most of them contractors have tested positive this month. The Japanese capital lags behind the U.S. and much of the world in vaccination rates, and the city is under its fourth state of emergency since the start of the pandemic.