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A look at how Toyko 2020 forged ahead regardless of all the challenges it faced

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The Olympics kicked off on Friday 23 July with the opening ceremony being held behind closed doors. (Photo: Gallo Images/ Getty Images)
The Olympics kicked off on Friday 23 July with the opening ceremony being held behind closed doors. (Photo: Gallo Images/ Getty Images)

It was always going to be an Olympics unlike any other – postponed by a year thanks to a pandemic that put the world at peril, athletes pushing themselves to the limit in near-empty stadiums, masks covering the smiles of winners on the podium, frequent Covid tests deciding who would stay and who would go home. 

“The Olympics are often billed as a slice of the globalised 21st-century world in miniature – humanity’s very best on display,” the Associated Press’ Ted Anthony says.

“But at Tokyo 2020, the entire affair instead has felt more like an industrial-strength clip reel of humanity’s past 18 months.”

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