Games close as they began: Odd, empty but still a global spectacle

Spotlight shifts to mental health, best of human athleticism of 206 National Olympic Committees; Tokyo hands over Games baton to Paris for 2024

It began with a virus and a yearlong pause. It ends with a typhoon and, still, a virus. In between: just about everything.
 
The Tokyo Olympics, christened with “2020” but held in mid-2021 after being interrupted for a year by the coronavirus, glided to their end on Sunday night as an often surreal mixed bag for Japan and for the world.
 
Held in the middle of a resurging pandemic, rejected by many Japanese and plagued by months of administrative problems, these Games presented logistical and medical obstacles like no other, offered up serious conversations about mental health —