Thomas Bach Delivers Closing Ceremony Speech at #Tokyo2020 Olympic Games

Sunday saw the closing ceremony of the 2020 Olympic Games, which means the sports world says goodbye to Tokyo and turns its attention to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, now just 6 months away, and the 2024 Paris Olympics, which are only 3 years away.

To mark the occasion, IOC president Thomas Bach read a closing message that was much briefer than his message at the opening ceremonies more than 2 weeks ago.

Bach was addressing a smaller collection of athletes than the opening ceremonies, because of rules requiring athletes to leave after the conclusion of their competitions, and a small collection of dignitaries. That list included Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, United States Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and a number of Tokyo officials, including Crown Prince Fumihito, Tokyo governor Yurik Koike, and Prime Minister Yoshihide.

The speech was rather vague, echoing the themes of the Games of togetherness and thanking the volunteers – who in the absence of fans became among the highlights of the Games off the field of competition.

Bach in the speech again thanked the Japanese people, which has been an important political talking point as surveys repeatedly show that the Japanese population was opposed to hosting the Games. In spite of those pre-Games oppositions and the lack of spectators, the Japanese tuned in on television.

Their athletes came through as well. The country won 27 gold medals and 58 total medals to rank 3rd on the overall medals table (in traditional gold-silver-bronze ranking order). That’s as compared to 12 gold and 41 total medals at the 2016 Olympics.

There were about 230,000 total participants in the Olympic Games, about 41,000 of which traveled from abroad.

The closing ceremonies saw a twist – all athletes entered the stadium en masse, rather than as individual country delegations. That’s been a tradition, designed to create unity, first conceived at the 1956 Games. Athletes entered from the four corners of the stadium as the “Olympic March,” which was written for the 1964 Games in Tokyo, was played.

A video played during the ceremony highlighted traditional festivals from around Japan. Dancers in traditional dress performed four dances from four different parts of the country.

The program ended with a handover to the Paris 2024 organizers, including a video that concluded with a gigantic flag being unfurled over the Eiffel Tower. According to organizers of the Paris Games, it is the largest flag ever flown at 90 meters long and 60 meters wide. That makes the flag 5400 square meters – almost the size of a soccer field.

The Olympic flame, lit 16 years ago, was then officially extinguished, bringing the Games to a close.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPgnZJaX7mQ

Full Text of Thomas Bach‘s Closing Ceremonies Speech

Your Imperial Highness, the Crown Prince,

Dear Olympic Friends around the world,

Good evening Tokyo, good evening Japan,

Dear athletes,

Over the last 16 days, you amazed us with your sporting achievements. With your excellence, with your joy, with your tears, you created the magic of these Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

You were faster, you went higher, you were stronger, because we all stood together – in solidarity.

You were competing fiercely with each other for Olympic glory. At the same time, you were living peacefully together under one roof in the Olympic Village. This is a powerful message of solidarity and peace.

You inspired us with this unifying power of sport. This was even more remarkable given the many challenges you had to face because of the pandemic.

In these difficult times, you give the world the most precious of gifts: hope.

For the first time since the pandemic began, the entire world came together. Sport returned to centre stage. Billions of people around the globe were united by emotion, sharing moments of joy and inspiration. This gives us hope. This gives us faith in the future.   

The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 are the Olympic Games of hope, solidarity and peace.

You, the best athletes of the world, could only make your Olympic dream come true because Japan prepared the stage for you to shine.

You, the Japanese people, can be extremely proud of what you have achieved. 

On behalf of all athletes, we say: Thank you, Tokyo! Thank you, Japan!

A special thanks goes to all the volunteers. The smiles in your eyes have warmed our hearts. 

A big thank you to all the volunteers!

Yes, these were unprecedented Olympic Games. It took us, the IOC and our Japanese partners and friends, an equally unprecedented effort to make them happen.

This is why I would like to thank the Japanese authorities at all levels, in particular Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and Governor Koike Yuriko, for their steadfast commitment. Thank you for staying with us on the side of the athletes, who were longing so much for these Olympic Games.

Our deep gratitude and appreciation go to the Organising Committee. Nobody has ever organised postponed Olympic Games before. Thank you to its President, my dear fellow Olympian, Hashimoto Seiko, and to all the dedicated people in the Organising Committee for your great partnership and wonderful friendship. 

The same is true for the solidarity demonstrated by everyone in the Olympic community. Our warm thanks go to the National Olympic Committees, the International Federations, our TOP Partners, sponsors and Rights-Holding Broadcasters for their truly outstanding show of unity and support.

We did it like athletes and for the athletes. We did it – together.

And now, I have to mark the end of this most challenging Olympic journey: I declare the Games of the 32nd Olympiad closed.

In accordance with tradition, I call upon the youth of the world to assemble three years from now in Paris, France, to celebrate with us the Games of the 33rd Olympiad.