No.59 From Rio to Tokyo! The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games are finally underway

Mario, holding a red ball, jumps into a pipe at Shibuya Crossing and instantly warps to Brazil on the opposite side of the Earth. Rising from the pipe that suddenly appeared in the center of the stadium is none other than Prime Minister Abe!
After the Olympic flag was handed over to Governor Yuriko Koike by the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, following the IOC President, a 12-minute show introducing the next Olympic host city featured unique content that prominently showcased Japanese anime culture, receiving high praise from overseas media.
This year, the 31st Summer Olympic Games were held in Rio de Janeiro, the first in South America, and concluded after 17 days of intense competition on August 21, 2016.
Japan won a record 41 medals, surpassing the previous record of 38 at the London Games, achieving 6th place in gold medals and 7th place overall.
It is meaningful to participate, and we should not be overly concerned with the number of medals, but seeing results that greatly exceed the initial goal of over 30 medals increases our expectations for the next Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
It is concerning that the number of events in which medals were won has decreased from 13 to 10 compared to the previous time, but the JOC aims for a gold medal count of third in the world at the next Tokyo Games, and we would like to support the realization of that dream.
In this tournament, notable achievements included Kohei Uchimura's consecutive victories in the men's individual all-around gymnastics, Kaori Icho's fourth consecutive victory in women's wrestling, Kosuke Hagino's performance in the 400-meter individual medley in men's swimming, and Rie Kaneto's victory in the 200-meter breaststroke in women's swimming. Additionally, the revival of judo for both men and women and the first gold medal in women's badminton by the "Takamatsu pair" were also happy news.
In addition, winning medals in events that have been difficult to place highly in, such as men's and women's table tennis and men's short-distance track, has become a great hope for the next time.

By the way, I think three issues were raised in this tournament: cost control, security measures, and doping problems.
The total event costs, which include the expenses for stadium maintenance and operation, have been on a rising trend, with the London Games reportedly costing around 1.5 trillion yen, while the Rio Games managed to keep it to about 460 billion yen, which is one-third of that. There are aspects, such as the temporary stands made of exposed pipe, that would be difficult to replicate directly in Japan, but efforts to reduce costs and effectively utilize the facilities after the event are things that can be started now.
Regarding security measures, it is said that there was no significant chaos, thanks to the deployment of 85,000 security personnel, which is more than double that of the London Games. I believe Japan has an advantage in terms of safety, but we must not let our guard down.
The issue of doping is a deep-rooted challenge that has not been resolved. Japan has never had a violator in any of the past Olympics. Because our country is pure and upright, this could be a good opportunity to assert our anti-doping stance to the world. I believe that doping, which sacrifices one's own body for the sake of temporary results, goes against the principle of putting athletes first.
This article is being written during the Paralympics, but it feels like there has been too much time since the conclusion of the Olympics, and the media coverage seems to be somewhat lacking. I hope for further integration of both events in the next Tokyo Games.