Staged against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and under unprecedented restrictions, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have officially come to an end Sunday.
Just like the opening on July 23, this year’s closing ceremony featured international athletes parading around a near-empty stadium after it was announced fans would not be allowed to attend because of rising COVID-19 cases in Japan.
Over the course of the fortnight, Team Canada racked up 24 medals — its highest tally at a non-boycotted Summer Games.
With three medals to her name in Tokyo — adding to the four she won at the 2016 Rio Games — swimmer Penny Oleksiak emerged as the country’s most decorated Olympian.
Ontario sprinter Andre De Grasse bagged gold in the men’s 200-metre race as well as defended his third-place bronze finish in the men’s 100-metre dash.
Once again, the United States topped the overall medal tally with 39 gold medals and the most podium finishes — 113 — followed by China and host Japan, which had its best Olympic medal haul. Canada ranked 11th overall — improving from its 20th place finish at the last Olympics.
Decathlon champion Damian Warner was chosen on Saturday evening as the flag bearer for Team Canada at the closing ceremony.
Canada had sent 370 athletes to the Olympics, the nation’s largest delegation since 1984.
The next edition of the Summer Games will be in Paris, France. At the closing ceremony on Sunday, Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, handed over the Olympic flag to the IOC President Thomas Bach, who passed it on to Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris.
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