All over bar the shouting … and the fireworks … and the boasting about our medals !

So the Tokyo Olympic Games have come to an end with the usual sort of display for the closing ceremony, that even the Japanese had to see on television. One of the people in Tokyo interviewed for last night’s news said the whole thing had been as if the games had taken place in another country. All the joy of winning the bid to host the games, all the expense of setting up stadiums, all the ceremony and all without spectators. Such a shame! But there has been a lot of talk about the examples of cooperation, which is what the Olympic Games are all about as well as competition. 

 

For example, Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi could not clear the final height in the high jump and instead of having a ‘jump-off”, like penalties in football, they agreed to share the gold medal. Hurrah!

This has been an unusual Games, say the commentators. And the linguist in me wants to protest and ask how we can talk about “A games”, when surely “games” are by nature plural! Shouldn’t we say “These have been unusual Games”?

But never mind! We’ve come away with 65 medals, 22 of them gold. And we’re 4th in the medal table. There is no limit to what the UK can achieve!! says Johnson, or words to that effect. After our Olympic success, sorting out Covid, the economy, the Brexit chaos and all the rest will be a piece of cake. We shall see!

And if you’re now feeling a little flat because it’s all over, think how the athletes must be feeling. They’ve got to go back to normal life. 

But hey! We’ve got the Winter Olympics in Beijing to look forward to in February and before we know it we’ll all be getting ready for the next session in Paris in 2024. We’ll always have Paris!

Meanwhile, our children are getting less sport in school than they should, according to new reports:

“Official figures show that the share of school hours spent on PE has suffered from a slow and steady decline since 2013, from 8.4% of school time to 7.7%. New figures also reveal that, heading into the pandemic, about a third of children and young people in London, the north-west, the West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber were active for, on average, less than 30 minutes a day, according to Sport England.”

Doesn’t that coincide with Tory rule? They can’t blame this on the previous Labour government. And here’s Michael Rosen talking about levelling up in education, including making sure everyone has sports facilities.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!