“The most scandalous and the most memorable”: The Olympics ended in Tokyo

Kremlin relations

On August 8, the official closing ceremony of the XXXII Summer Olympic Games was held in Tokyo. These Olympic Games were held for the first time without spectators in the stands. 

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This is the first Olympiad held without spectators. It did not become an incentive for economic growth, which Japan initially hoped for. 

Many athletes left Tokyo before the closing of the Olympic Games. This was done in accordance with the protocol of the organizers of the Olympics, since the athletes had to leave Japan within 48 hours after their competitions ended. 

Russian athletes competed at the Olympic Games in Tokyo under the flag and emblem of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) because of a high-profile doping scandal. Russia also lost the anthem, instead of which a fragment of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto was played throughout the Olympics. 

In January of this year, the ROC Athletes ‘ commission proposed using the song “Katyusha” instead of the national anthem at the Games, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected this proposal. 

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The Olympic Games in Tokyo were the most successful for Russia in the last 17 years. Russian athletes won a total of 71 medals: 20 gold, 28 silver and 23 bronze. 

Russia takes the 5th place in the team medal standings. 

The first place is taken by the United States, the second — by China, and the third — by Japan. 

For the Russian national team, these summer Games were incredibly difficult both physically and mentally. There were so many loud victories, so many bitter disappointments.

In many aspects, the Olympics were not without scandals. 

A tangled ribbon, a double victory and a score in favor of the Korean

It is worth starting with the scandal that arose in the last days of competitions in rhythmic gymnastics. As representatives of Russia in this sport, the sisters Dina and Arina Averina, who have been invincible for the last five years, went to Japan. And so, the sisters perform perfectly, Arina lost quite a bit to her sister, being on the second line.

The next day, the points of the Russian gymnasts were underestimated in comparison with the qualification, despite the fact that all the exercises of Averina showed almost perfectly. Arina had a problem only once, when her tape got confused, and she was forced to replace it, but without disrupting the performance in any way.

However, the winner of the gold medal was a gymnast from Israel Lina Ashram. Her mistake in the exercise with the tape, when she dropped it, the judges “didn’t notice”.

This caused a big wave of discontent not only in the world of rhythmic gymnastics, but also throughout Russia. On the final day of the Games, this story was repeated in the group all-around: Russia again became the second, losing this time to Bulgaria. 

©RIA Novosti / Vladimir Pesnya

However, there were much more successes in gymnastics. Both the women’s and men’s teams won gold in the team all-around. The gold medals were won for the first time in 29 years.

Later, Russian Nikita Nagorny, who was also part of the team all-around, won a bronze medal in the crossbar exercise at the Olympic Games.

“Championship” / Alexander Safonov

But even here there were scandals: in the support jump, the judges did not allow the Russian Denis Ablyazin to get a well-deserved gold medal. As a result, he received the same amount of points with the Korean Chae Hwang Sin. With the same assessment, the difficulty of one of the jumps decided everything, and Chae Hwang Shin became the Olympic champion. 

“It’s sad to realize that there is a doping program…”, or how the American took silver

In the final 200-meter backstroke, Evgeny Rylov became the undisputed winner. Despite the fact that the swim, according to the champion himself, turned out to be imperfect, the rivals were quite far from fighting for the gold award. 

American silver medalist Ryan Murphy was almost a second behind.

After the final, Murphy and Greebank said that the fight in the 200-meter swim was not clean. But Rylov answered this calmly: 

“I have never taken anything, I fill out the Adams system, I would never forgive myself if I took anything. Ryan has every right to think so…”

Later, Ryan began to justify himself. It turned out that he did not mean Rylov at all, he just decided at this very moment to speculate about a fair fight for sports and dislike of doping. Russian instagrammer Evgeny recorded a video message in which he spoke about the dialogue with Ryan on Instagram, the American later apologized to the Russian champion for his assumptions.

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Russians with weapons: the first gold in shooting

The first medal in the piggy bank of the Russian national team was brought by shooter Anastasia Galashina on the first day of the Olympic Games. The athlete won silver, because the last shot failed her. 

According to the results of the competition, the Russian lost to the representative of China Qian Yang only 0.7 points.

The next day, the first gold was mined. Vitalina Batsarashkina became the Olympic champion in shooting from 10 meters from an air pistol. Later, Batsarashkina won another gold medal – in shooting from an air pistol with 25 m, and together with Artem Chernousov, they won silver medals at the Olympic Games in shooting from an air pistol with 10 m in the mixed.

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These are not all the successes of Russian athletes who have lost both the support of the stands and national symbols. And in some moments, the judges were biased against the Russians.

241 Russian athletes will compete at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Paralympians will take part in 19 sports out of 22 and for the first time will participate in badminton, bocce, canoeing, triathlon, taekwondo, as well as women’s competitions in goalball and sitting volleyball. 

The Olympic flag and the flame will be handed over to the next host country of the Summer Games, France, which will host the 2024 Olympics in Paris.