GUTS & GLORY

A YEAR-LONG postponement, restriction after restriction – when people predicted Tokyo 2020 was going to be an Olympic Games like no other, they weren’t kidding.

But forget the Covid-testing, the trials, the tribulations, the absence of crowds, the masks hiding the faces of victorious athletes as they stood on the podium. These Games delivered many a feel-good moment, dozens of incredible performances and plenty of drama as athletes strove to do what they came to do: jump higher, go faster and be stronger than any competitor before them.

LIGHTING THE FLAME

Japan’s Naomi Osaka (23) became the first tennis player to be given the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony.

“It was undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honour I will ever have in my life,” she said.

Osaka was knocked out of the women’s