Before thousands of international athletes and reporters even landed in Tokyo, the Olympics were seen as a horror story waiting to happen.

What’s essential in a mega sporting event—confined spaces, crowds and close contacts—also makes fertile ground for COVID-19. Apprehensive and alarmed, the Japanese public overwhelmingly opposed hosting the Tokyo Games. When the time came, everyone bit their fingernails, bracing for headlines of a mass outbreak in the Olympic Village, or even worse, an Olympic variant.

Before the Olympics began, Japan had feared that the 2020 Games, with thousands of officials, media and athletes descending on Tokyo in the middle of a pandemic, might spread COVID-19, introduce new variants and overwhelm the medical system.

But as the Games draw near their end, the infection numbers from inside the Olympic "bubble" - a set of venues, hotels and the media centre to which those coming for the Games had been mostly confined - tell a different story.

A breath of fresh air wafted through the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday as — finally — an American athlete bucked the norm set by leftist athletes and expressed a pro-American point of view as she represented the United States on the world stage.

These Olympic Games are never far from the hint of a gesture or protest, a moment of free speech, an opportunity to make a statement.

So it came as absolutely no surprise that U.S. hammer thrower Gwen Berry entered the Olympic Stadium Tuesday night by raising her right fist not once but twice, several seconds apart, to announce that she of all people would be taking advantage of the International Olympic Committee’s relaxed rules allowing freedom of speech prior to the start of play.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical and science director Dr. Richard Budgett has claimed that “everyone agrees that trans women are women,” and praised 42-year-old New Zealand transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard.

Hubbard, a biological male who identifies as a female, will compete Monday at the Tokyo Olympics against biological women in weightlifting. Hubbard formerly competed against male weightlifters before the athlete identified as a woman and was allowed access to female competitions.

The United States and Iran met today at the Tokyo Olympics to play basketball. The elephant in the room—decades of geopolitical saber-rattling and proxy violence—was nowhere to be seen. The Americans clapped as the Iranian national anthem played. The Iranians applauded "The Star-Spangled Banner." Handshakes and niceties were exchanged before and after the game.

YESTERDAY, during the women’s gymnastics team final at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Simone Biles, of the USA, lost her bearings while performing a vault, and stumbled as she landed. Soon after, she left the venue, accompanied by a medical official; when she returned, it was only to watch her teammates. All this happened early in the morning, US time.

“Simone Biles will not defend her Olympic title. The American gymnastics superstar withdrew from Thursday’s all-around competition to focus on her mental well-being. USA Gymnastics said in a statement on Wednesday that the 24-year-old is opting to not compete. The decision comes a day after Biles removed herself from the team final following one rotation because she felt she wasn’t mentally ready.” AP News

Many on both sides support Biles’s decision to withdraw:

It can sound cliché to say the spirit of the Games is about more than winning gold. Not today. Simone Biles made history with her difficult decision to withdraw, as did her team with its staunch support of her.

After a skittish performance at qualifiers Sunday night, Simone Biles thought that when she finished competing that night, she would stop feeling judged.

She didn’t.

An updating medal count for every competing nation compared with the number of medals we thought each would have won so far — along with how many more they might take home.