See you in Paris!

The flame at the Tokyo games was doused & it's Paris up next.

As we end the games, some interesting facts about the Tokyo games:

1. Age is just a number

The difference between the youngest & the oldest participant was 54 yrs.

The youngest was a 12-yr-old Syrian table tennis player, Hend Zaza. She had to overcome obstacles in her homeland, as she trained through power cuts caused by civil war. She defeated 42-year-old Mariana Sahakian of Lebanon to qualify for Tokyo. Zaza lost in the first round but said: "My message to everyone who wishes to have the same situation: Fight for your dreams."

The oldest was Mary Hanna, 66 year old Australian grandmother who participated in Equestrian. Hanna competed in her 7th Games and is the 2nd-oldest woman to ever participate in the Olympics. She's been to every Olympics since 1996.

13 year old Momiji Nishiya of Japan became the youngest gold winner of all time in women's skateboarding.

2. Participants & volunteers

Over 11.5k athletes from 206 countries participated.

This games saw the highest number of women participants in the history of the games.

More than 88k volunteers were involved in the Olympics.

3. Tagline & cost

“United by Emotion,” the official tagline for Tokyo resonates a worldwide plea for diversity and inclusivity.

The estimated sports related cost of the Tokyo Olympics was ~$20Bn but it isn't the most expensive! The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics was at ~$24.9bn!

4. Medals

Japan recycled ~79k tonnes of electronic equipment including digital cameras, computers, portable games & a record 6.21mn mobile phones to make 5000 Olympic medals. It is not the 1st country to recycle materials for medals but is the 1st time that residents of a host country voluntarily contributed their gadgets to be used as materials.

5. The bouquet 

You would have seen the athletes receiving bouquets with the medals.

The bouquet symbolizes the rise of Japan. 

The flowers used for the bouquets are grown mainly in areas of the north-east Japan that were affected by the earthquake in 2011.

The sunflowers are sourced from Miyagi. These were planted by parents of children who lost their lives in the earthquake. These children had taken shelter here. The entire hill is covered with sunflowers, every year.

The eustomas and Solomon’s seals have been sourced from Fukushima grown by a nonprofit organisation with the hope of reviving the local economy. The land became unfit for agricultural production.

The indigo blue flowers, gentians, are grown in Iwate

Together, these flowers represent the disaster-affected regions of Japan and aim to bring people's attention to these cities.

The bouquet also features a small figure of the Olympic mascot, Miraitowa - mirai (future) and towa (eternity).

US topped the medal tally with 113 medals (39 Gold) & we are no. 48 in the list. 

That officially brings us to the end of Tokyo 2020.

Bring on Paris!

ARIGATO!

Jai hind🇮🇳

#tokyo2020 #olympics