At first I didn't really feel excited. There was too much negativity revolving around the games and Covid, I didn't expect there to be a great atmosphere. Then came the first matches in softball and football before the opening ceremony, still didn't feel much. It all got better with the opening ceremony for me and all of a sudden, I got excited. It was the Olympics after all and the organisers did their best to make them happen.
I was telling myself before, I would not change my sleeping schedule. In the end, I didn't, but I couldn't really sleep on the night towards the first day. I checked the first result online and then I got up and I was hooked immediately. Gone was the negativity the months before. And it felt like there were no spectators needed. The athletes created the tension and emotions all by themselves. Literally everyone was crying, over 4th place as well as the bronze. Daria Bilodid's bout comes to mind. Eventually, we got to see two weeks of exciting sports, shifts and turnarounds in the medal table. Many records were broken, many nations had their best games ever (some not, of course).
About the new sports, I enjoyed all of them. There's none I would say they shouldn't return.
Softball/baseball is one of my favourite team sports now, even if they take a while. Not to mention one of the less Euro-centric ones which is also nice to have. Skateboarding I fully enjoyed but definitely park more than street. I expected street to be more than just a bit of "slopestyle". Sport climbing too of course, and we can all agree on having to separate speed from lead/boulder. The combined format was not the greatest.
Behind those three comes karate. Someone said it's more exciting than judo and I can see that. This time, judo felt like it dragged on too much with a lot of golden score decisions. Definitely wouldn't mind karate returning. The only slight problem I had was following the surfing. It's relaxing to watch but on busy days with tons of stuff going on I didn't feel like waiting for the waves to come. It's still nice to have it but it certainly didn't get my priority here.
More about specific teams to follow later. All in all a better Olympics than I thought they would be. Sorry Japan didn't get to show its full potential here, but still.
Arigatou Tokyo.