Tokyo 2020, the curtain falls on the Games: the baton passes to Paris 2024

The curtain falls on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The baton, as regards the Summer Olympics, passes to Paris 2024 for the Olympics, hopefully, post-pandemic. In the presence of the crown prince Akishino, first in the line of succession to the emperor Naruhito who instead attended the opening one, the president of the IOC Thomas Bach, the Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga and the governor of Tokyo Yurike Koike, Japan greets the athletes who have honored these Games. Then the mayor of the French capital, Anne Hidalgo, received the Olympic flag from the governor of the Japanese metropolis, Yuriko Koike, through the IOC president, Thomas Bach. A greeting that also comes from space, from some of the French Olympic champions connected from Paris with an ideal huge flag on the Eiffel Tower and from French President Emmanuel Macron who recited the new IOC slogan. Read also Italy protagonist in the ceremony with Marcell Jacobs blue flag-bearer after the gold medals in the 100 meters and in the 4×100 relay. There are also Gianmarco Tamberi as well as Marcell Jacobs in the celebratory video of the IOC, with the high jump champion who was shown during the now famous hug with Barshim in the final which earned gold ex aequo. Hand beating the chest, on the other hand, in the images that showed Jacobs arriving at the 100-meter finish line, won by the blue. Also the blue Federica Pellegrini among the protagonists of the ceremony. The blue swimmer was announced, along with three other colleagues, as a new member of the IOC, to deliver an award to the volunteers involved during the Olympics, as a sign of gratitude for the work done. The ceremony closes with the IOC president Thomas Bach who officially declares the Tokyo 2020 Games over. “The Tokyo Games were the Games of hope, solidarity and peace. Thank you Tokyo, thank you Japan. It was a great message of solidarity and peace. You inspired us with this union of strength of sport “, said the number one of the IOC. The Olympic flame went out at the Tokyo 2020 Games in the Olympic Stadium of the Japanese capital and will return to light in the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games on 24 August. “With the pandemic, sport has become central, a moment of joy and inspiration, of hope and faith in the future. We did it. Together. See you in Paris” concludes Bach. (From the correspondent Emanuele Rizzi)