Japan spent $12bn on an Olympic party no one could attend yet a shared message of overcoming hardship resonated worldwide
So how was it for you? Whether you loved or hated them, you have to admit these Olympic Games were a crazy proposition. With 206 competing teams, they were bigger and more diverse than the United Nations and – with an estimated bill of at least £12bn, 111% over budget – the Japanese could have bought 300 new 300-bed hospitals, or 1,200 elementary schools, with what they cost to put on.
The Games always have been, and always will be, like this. Which is why, when the French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin first suggested reviving the ancient Olympics in a speech at the Sorbonne in 1892, a lot of the people in the audience thought he was joking.