Drones Brought Me Back to the Olympics
One stunning drone air show made me believe in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics again
I wasn’t feeling it. Normally, I’m an Olympics junkie. I consume the opening ceremonies, major competitions — and a lot of minor ones — and the Closing Ceremonies as if I was competing in some kind of Olympics Watching sport.
I try to medal in both Summer and Winter Olympics.
These vexed games were different. Delayed, damaged by COVID outbreaks, Tokyo’s mishandling of the epidemic and vaccinations, and sapped of the energy crowds bring to the ceremonies and competitions, they barely felt like The Games.
Still, when I woke up Friday morning (the Tokyo 2020 Olympics run from July 23 to August 8), surprised to see coverage flowing in from the already-in-progress opening ceremonies, I decided to watch,
A parade of teams marched across the fishbowl stadium, as NBC’s Savannah Guthrie and Mike Tirico announced country names and scripted tidbits of information about each one. I decided to hang in there for the U.S. team (even after reading the disheartening news that one-in-six U.S. Olympians weren't; vaccinated).
To help engage, I started live-tweeting some of what I saw. The empty stands hovered in the background of most shots…
