‘United By Emotion’

Editor-in-chief Ryu Dae-hoon

wherearetacos@naver.com

 The modern Olympics started in Athens on the premise of wishing world. However, the original meaning of the Olympics has been diluted over time. The 1936 Berlin Olympics, for example, was propagandized with advertisements of National Socialism. Several Olympics were also affected by the actions of the host governments. Conditions should be set for players to compete regardless of their race, religion or political persuasions. Audiences should be able to just enjoy the Games and be allowed to forget their struggles just for a moment. That is what the Olympics was meant to be about.

 That is exactly what the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were all about. Everyone knows that this Olympics was not going to be a normal one because COVID-19 became a huge obstacle. People began to refer to this year’s Games as the ‘Five-no Olympics’; No audiences, superstars, revenues, country leaders, nor interest from the public. The Japanese press criticized their prime minister, Suga Yoshihide, for trying to kill his own country by pushing ahead with the Olympics for political reasons.

Now, the Tokyo Olympics is over and we can rate how it went. In general, audiences around the world were impressed with the competition. Two athletes who were well-recognized were In Kyo-don, Korean Taekwondo athlete, and Shanne Braspennincx, Dutch cyclist, who won medals after overcoming cancer and heart surgery, respectively. The story of Italo Ferreira, who won the gold medal in surfing, also left a strong impression on many. Ferreira learned to surf on the lid of a cooler box that his father uses when he sells fish and in Tokyo he completed the fairytale by winning the Olympic gold medal. Along with these three athletes, all of the roughly 10,000 athletes who participated in this Olympics gave us touching stories in 10,000 different ways.

 ‘United By Emotion’ was the motto of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. When we think about the reason why the Olympics were started, this Olympics was a complete success. It made us feel love for mankind and gave encouragement to people going through hard times in this pandemic. That is why this year’s Olympics has touched our hearts so much, even though the Games are held every two years. The baton has now been handed over to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and 2024 Paris Olympics. The whole world hopes that fans and athletes will not have to worry about COVID-19 by that time.