We rely too much on sport to bring our country together

After the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo were delayed by a year because of coronavirus, the organisers expressed the hope that the Olympic flame “could become the light at the end of the tunnel”. Although the games are now under way, the pandemic is still casting a long shadow over them.

The participants await their events in their bubbles even more nervously than usual, hoping desperately not to join the 100 or so officials and sportsmen and women to test positive in their daily checks or forced to self-isolate after having contact with someone with the virus.

Inevitably, the opening ceremony was a relatively subdued and sombre affair, by Olympic standards like the dazzling start to London 2012. Only 22 of Team GB’s 375-strong squad took part on Friday, watched by 950 VIPs in a £1bn new stadium which holds 60,000 people.

With Tokyo in a state of emergency amid a spike of Covid cases, spectators have regrettably but rightly been banned. There remain fears it could be a super-spreader event. Seven out of 10 people in Japan (and almost as many in Great Britain) believed the games should not have gone ahead; inside the stadium, protesters on the outside could be heard shouting “stop the games”. In contrast, enthusiasts struggled to get a peek at a ceremony which included a moment of silence for those who lost their lives to the virus.

The cost of the games has risen by 22 per cent to £11.5bn because of the postponement. In rejecting calls for them to be cancelled, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was mindful that it would have had to refund about £2.9bn to broadcasters, a much bigger sum than the estimated £580m loss from ticket sales, due to be met mostly by the Tokyo hosts.

Whatever the motives behind the decision to go ahead, the games have now begun. So even if events beyond the IOC’s control prevent this year’s spectacle being the greatest show on earth, we must hope they are a success. While critics will continue to carp at the cost, the Olympics are a force for bringing people together while providing a platform for the best in the world to compete.

The power of sport was illustrated by Euro 2020, and the brilliant campaign by Gareth Southgate and his players both on and off the pitch. Arguably, the Olympics could have an even greater effect in uniting the country; in contrast to the football, people in Scotland should surely not be in two minds about whether they want an English athlete to win their race. In Great Britain at least, we are all in it together for the next two-and-a-half weeks.

We hope the games are not overshadowed by the daily Covid statistics among the competitors and that the world can focus on the festival of sport. We also hope Team GB puts in another strong performance on the medals front, building on its success in London and, unusually, its even bigger haul in Rio four years later.

When the show is over, perhaps UK politicians and institutions should reflect on why sport does so much of the heavy lifting in bringing people together. There is a danger that once the caravan has moved on, the spirit of togetherness among those of different ages, genders and ethnic groups dissipates. Coming together as a nation once every couple of years is not enough; it is time for other bodies to pull their weight.