TOKYO — It’s time for Japan to take its Olympic bow.
Tokyo will pass the baton to Paris on Sunday after staging a Games that was delayed by Covid-19 and dismayed a skeptical public but nonetheless still delivered its share of powerful sporting drama.
The closing ceremony, which kicks off at 8 p.m. Tokyo time (7 a.m. ET), will cap two weeks of Olympic action that was watched by millions of people around the world but seen in person by a select few because of a pandemic that will stalk the host country long after the athletes have left.
Watch live: NBC’s coverage of the Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony
“We know that by the end of the Games, we will have 200 million cheers coming from every single country in the world,” Yiannis Exarchos, who heads the Olympic Broadcasting Services, said Saturday.
“This is a big number.”
An early focus on logistical challenges and domestic opposition gave way not just to the spectacle of sporting glory and defeat but to geopolitical intrigue, athletes’ mental health and so much more.
The United States once again led the world with 108 medals as of Saturday evening, ahead of China and the Russian Olympic Committee.
In a video message to the team posted on Twitter Saturday, President Joe Biden thanked the U.S. athletes “for showing what we can do together as one America and as one team.”
“Beyond the medals and the results, you reminded us that we are stronger than we thought we were,” Biden said.
Host country Japan made the top 5 with 56 medals, nearly half of them gold, according to the latest NBC News tally.
Masa Takaya, a spokesman for the Games who has spent much of the Olympics fielding tough questions on the coronavirus and other controversies from skeptical reporters, did not try to hide his satisfaction at Friday’s daily news briefing.
“It’s important that athletes from every country perform their best, but also good to see athletes from the home soil doing well,” he said.
They secured their most cherished medal of the lot early Saturday, shutting out the U.S. to win the baseball-mad country’s first ever gold in the sport.
Japan mounted the world’s biggest sporting celebration in the face of a plague that has infected more than 200 million people and killed 4.3 million around the world, and — propelled by the delta variant — began spreading through Tokyo at a record rate just as the Games were getting underway.
History will judge whether these Olympics were a success. But this much we can say for sure:
These were the Games where gymnastics star Simone Biles took home a team silver medal, a bronze for the balance beam, and a golden legacy on and off the mat after she shocked the world by pulling out of some key events to focus on her mental health.
These were the Games when established stars Allyson Felix and Katie Ledecky added to their medal hauls and a constellation of new Olympics stars emerged, like swimmer Caeleb Dressel, surfer Carissa Moore, gymnast Suni Lee and runners Sydney McLaughlin and Molly Seidel.
The U.S. women’s soccer team fell short in their pursuit of another gold medal, but veteran striker Alex Morgan — one of many stars of this golden generation who may have played in their last Olympics — told NBC News they’re proud of their hard-earned hardware.
“We’re really happy that we came away with a bronze medal,” Morgan said.
The U.S. men’s basketball team, led by Kevin Durant, defeated a formidable French squad to bring home a fourth straight Olympic gold and cement America’s status as the world’s pre-eminent basketball power.
Americans were also introduced to Olympic heroes from unlikely places, like Alaska teen Lydia Jacoby, who won gold in the women’s 100-meter breast stroke and hails from a state with exactly one Olympic-sized swimming pool — which she couldn’t train in for months because of Covid-19.
They cheered on the kids competing in the Olympics, like 15-year-old U.S. swimmer Katie Grimes, and a litany of skateboarding teens, including Japan’s 13-year-old champion Momiji Nishiya. They cheered on age-defying athletes, too, like U.S. women’s basketball player Sue Bird, who is 40, and equestrian rider Phillip Dutton, 57.
These were the Games where a Belarusian sprinterdefied her country’s authoritarian leader by criticizing her coaches, escaping the handlers trying to send her home at a Tokyo-area airport, and finding sanctuary in Poland.
Other female athletes stood up — or took a knee — for Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, and revolted against having to compete in revealing outfits.
The Games opened to protests in Tokyo and broad opposition from the Japanese people, who feared an influx of athletes from abroad would worsen the Covid crisis at home, but who were nevertheless welcoming to the thousands of visitors in their midst.
There were Olympic displays of kindness and class — runners Isaiah Jewett of the U.S. and Nigel Amos of Botswana helped each to their feet after they got tangled and fell during the 800-meter semifinals, while high jumpers Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar embraced in delight as they agreed to share a gold medal.
But there was also the Olympic meltdown of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic smashing his racket in frustration after he failed to medal and blew his chance of becoming the first man to win the Golden Slam — four Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal in the same year.
Algerian judo competitor Fethi Nourine defied the Olympic ideal by withdrawing from competition rather than fight an Israeli. And in what could be an Olympic first, a coach with the German modern pentathlon team was kicked out of the Games for punching a horse that balked at jumping.
Just three weeks ago, the Tokyo Games appeared to be imploding.
Key members of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee were knocked out by scandal. Polls showed a solid majority of Japanese were still opposed to the Olympics. One of its biggest sponsors, Toyota Motor Corp., pulled its local TV ads lest it be forever bound to an event that seemed certain to go down in infamy. And then came the steady stream of reports that athletes were testing positive for Covid-19 and testing the assurances of Japan’s leaders that the Games would be “safe and secure.”
Olympics historian Jeremy Fuchs told NBC News at the time that “there’s never been an entirely happy Olympics” and that the Games have, at times, been overshadowed by contentious debates about human rights and politics, even excessive spending.
“But this much controversy I think is really unprecedented,” Fuchs said. “I think you’d be hard-pressed to find an example in history where citizens of a host country are this unhappy.”
In an interview with NBC News on the eve of the Tokyo Olympics, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga admitted it was a struggle to sell the event to his people. But he said the Games would go on.
And they did.