The US yesterday edged China at the top of the Tokyo Olympics medals table as the curtain fell on the biggest sports event since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The US started the day two golds behind China, but the women’s basketball and volleyball titles and US track cyclist Jennifer Valente’s omnium victory put them top of the final table, just one ahead of China.
The 339th and final gold medal went to Serbia’s men’s water polo team, capping a Games that were in serious danger of cancelation after they became the first postponed Olympics last year.
Photo: Reuters
Thirty-three sports were contested across 16 days in largely empty stadiums, with fans barred due to COVID-19 risks and athletes living in strict biosecure conditions.
“Some were already speaking of ‘Ghost Games,’” International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach told an IOC session ahead of the closing ceremony on Sunday. “What we have seen here is that, on the contrary, the athletes have brought soul to the Olympic Games.”
The Olympics were plagued by low Japanese support over fears they would become a super-spreader event, but officials maintained that a record haul of 27 gold medals, putting Japan third on the table, has won hearts.
Photo: AFP
“We believe our athletes’ earnest spirit and all-out performance moved people,” said Tsuyoshi Fukui, chef de mission for the Japanese team.
The UK finished fourth with 22 golds and the Russian Olympic Committee, the team for Russian athletes after Russia was banned for doping, were fifth with 20.
Taiwanese athletes completed their participation in the 2020 Tokyo Games on Saturday with a record medal haul — two golds, four silvers and six bronzes — ranking 34th on the medal table.
Taiwanese athletes shattered the nation’s previous record of five medals — two golds, two silvers and one bronze — set at the Athens Olympics in 2004.
Sixty-eight Taiwanese competed in 18 sports at the Games.
Taiwan’s two golds were won by Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳), who dominated the women’s 59kg weight class, and world No. 3 badminton doubles team Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟).
Yesterday’s closing ceremony was held at an Olympic Stadium empty of spectators, rounding off an extraordinary Games conducted mostly for a worldwide TV audience of billions.
At the closing ceremony, the Olympic flag was passed to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo for the 2024 Games, but the Olympic circus is to reconvene in just six months when Beijing, faced with boycott threats, hosts the Winter Games.
Additional reporting by staff writer, with CNA
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS