Closing time

My first Olympic ceremony experience was certainly interesting and was a fitting close to this long strange trip that has been the Tokyo Olympics.

All the media transportation guides advised us to arrive early, since there is a lot of journalists moving in and out of the venue as the evening moves along and in order to keep the transportation moving, they wanted traffic spread out a little bit. I got to the Olympic Stadium about 4:30 p.m., well ahead of the 8 p.m. scheduled start time. I spent a little time in the venue media center in the bowels of the stadium and then moved up to the stands.

I was glad that I made my way up to the stands early, as I was able to get a tabled tribune seat, which is a seat with a table, monitor and power outlets. Many of the people that showed up later did not have that option and sat in the regular stadium seats. 

While sitting there, I got the chance to watch as the participants went through a practice run of many parts of the closing ceremonies, including the marathon medal ceremonies. 

When the ceremonies actually started, there was plenty of pomp and circumstance, as the flags of the nations moved through the stadium and the athletes followed. The Japanese flag was raised to start everything and after that, came the medal ceremonies for the marathon men and women. There was plenty of dancing and singing and they added in video from around the Olympics as well as original dances from different areas of Japan.

There was the traditional handing over of the Olympic flag from the government of Tokyo to the mayor of Paris, as the Summer Olympics make the journey to France for 2024, 100 years after they last appeared in the French capital city. The French flag was raised and then there was a great video played from Paris 2024, including live shots from Paris as people there celebrated the return of the Olympics.

The Olympic flame was officially extinguished and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were officially brought to a close. I was able to get on a bus pretty quickly and got back to the hotel before midnight, which was truthfully, kind of a surprise. 

From there, it was time to pack this morning and get ready for the long flight home. Look for a reflection on my time here in the coming days as I decompress what has been a long process.

The Closing Ceremonies wrapped up another Olympic experience.