Step by step, jump by jump, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are coming to an end. In just a couple of days, the athletes will abandon their 'anti-sex' cardboard beds and return to their normal regime. If we consider tirelessly maxing out your human capabilities normal, that is.
So, we at Bored Panda decided it's the perfect time to put together a new list of memes that sum up this amazing spectacle. Continue scrolling to check out the pictures and catch up on the series here.
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In 2013, when it bid for the 2020 Summer Games, Tokyo estimated it would spend $7.3 billion. However, by summer 2020, an Oxford economist told the Associated Press that Tokyo’s costs had already more than doubled to $15.84 billion and became the most expensive Summer Games on record. Local organizers have disputed that number but they admitted in December 2019 that costs had risen to $12.6 billion.
Competing estimates from a national audit board and national newspaper are even higher, saying it could be nearly $30 billion.
Of course, these Olympics are special. The city had to postpone the Games for a year after Covid-19 made hosting the international event impossible, and to top it all off, the city won’t receive the tourism boom that usually accompanies the event.
But a 2020 paper by Oxford economist Bent Flyvbjerg discovered an interesting fact: "every Olympics since 1960 has run over budget, at an average of 172 percent in real terms, the highest overrun on record for any type of megaproject."
In other words, there might be something wrong with the Olympics bidding process as a whole.
As Vox pointed out, some of the supposed benefits of hosting the Olympics have come under scrutiny by locals and economists alike. Economists Victor Matheson and Robert Baade outlined the potential benefits as "the short-run benefits of tourist spending during the Games; the long-run benefits of the ‘Olympic legacy’ which might include improvements in infrastructure and increased trade, foreign investment or tourism after the Games; and intangible benefits such as the ‘feel-good effect’ or civic pride."
The Games can also provide a brief employment benefit and stimulative effect. But it's not as significant as we might think: "Overwhelmingly, the studies show actual economic impacts that are either near-zero or a fraction of that predicted prior to the event," Matheson and Baade write.
Pacific University professor Jules Boykoff criticized the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for running itself like a "profit-gobbling cartel."
"For too long, the IOC has claimed that the city doesn’t have to build new infrastructure, that it’s the city’s decision. Of course, host cities have to build new venues if they actually want to host the Games. Whitewater kayak venues don’t grow on trees," Boykoff wrote in a 2017 Los Angeles Times column. "In truth, the IOC chips in for operating costs by essentially laundering money from its lucrative corporate sponsorships and television rights deals. That’s all well and good, but it’s time the organization stepped up and contributed to infrastructure costs as well."
As the Tokyo Olympics plays out in virtually empty stadiums, the IOC will continue raking in profits but it's the Japanese people who will have to pay the bill.
Similarly in the Women's Park skateboarding, Sky Brown won bronze for GB, at 13 and Kokona Hiraki won silver at 12 (freaking 12!!!)
i am 14 and i feel like i am not doing enough with my life when i see these girls
Don't worry, you still have time. (But please be careful about stating your age on this site, some weird folk around!)
Load More Replies...I don't know, seems a little young to be in the Olympics, so much pressure on them.
It kind of makes me feel the opposite really. Like if kids are winning it then it must be something a child would have an advantage in and therefore just some kid thing and not really for adults.
At 13, I'd fall on my face putting on my socks in the morning...
I was a great skater, but then I smashed my ankle up and broke it in 3 places and couldn't hardly walk for a year let alone think about skating again, then it was never the same.
Sky Brown took Bronze in the Skate Park too, she's also 13...and apparently has her own Barbie doll named after her?!
Not to forget that 14 year old that got perfect tens on EVERY SINGLE DIVE!!!!!!!
Skateboarding is a lot of fun. I am glad to see it in the games and these two were awesome!
I lived in Japan in the Late 80s. Never saw anyone skateboard, especially a girl. This must be a new thing.
I saw Momiji and for a moment I was like "Why is my sweet Momiji mentioned in a post about the Olympics?" I never knew the Fruits Basket gang were conpeting XD.
Most olympic sport have minimum age of 14 or 16 to protect young athletes. Skateboarding: "F**k you"
So I feel like heavyweight boxers might want an extra bit of gold seeing this
This might be an unpopular opinion but I don't think anyone below the age 18 should be allowed to compete in the Olympics. These girls are amazing but I can't imagine how awful it would be if they got hurt and could never compete again at such a young age? Why haven't we learned from all the children hurt in gymnastics in the Olympics?
A year ago Sky Brown was in a hospital bed recovering from multiple skull fractures, a lacerated lung, and a broken arm.
Load More Replies...Loved watching skateboarding! Most of the competitors looked like they were having a blast and enjoying it, regarding the results, pure good vibes!!
Only old people said that from the start! Golf is not a sport... it's a game! Chess is not a sport! Video a game at high level is not a sport! We will need time like for gender, but we will make our sports accepted by all too 😉
Load More Replies...Reminds me of one time I was in a café in Paris next to a guy reading a book on how to learn swimming. I don't understand why these books exist
The runners who are behind him crossing the finish line! In the 200m this Olympics he beat Usain Bolt's speed for that distance. And really the only reason Bolt won the 100m was because he is taller and could lean forward further. Ya, gonna get down voted on that one. But he's our guy! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
After their FIRST tournament together <3 https://twitter.com/PodolakKamila/status/1421816483563384838
They're still considered the 2020 olympics, they were just delayed. It's not like every olympic game was shifted, the next summer olympics are in 3 years now.
Load More Replies...Ah yes Asian last names are so funny because it means something else in the English language.
And you are Chinese using a fake name. Taiwan is an independent country, it rocks you suck ;)
Load More Replies...After their FIRST tournament together <3 https://twitter.com/PodolakKamila/status/1421816483563384838
They're still considered the 2020 olympics, they were just delayed. It's not like every olympic game was shifted, the next summer olympics are in 3 years now.
Load More Replies...Ah yes Asian last names are so funny because it means something else in the English language.
And you are Chinese using a fake name. Taiwan is an independent country, it rocks you suck ;)
Load More Replies...