Jake Wightman fears Friday’s Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games may be a disappointing and deflating damp squib rather than igniting the flames of those taking part.
Sailor Hannah Mills and rower Mohamed Sbihi will serve as the chosen flagbearers for the UK as the curtain is officially raised on the Tokyo Games that Covid propelled out of 2020 with a new script required.
But the two Olympic gold medallists are expected to be among just 30 British hopefuls marching through a fan-less stadium for a scaled-down show on the theme of ‘United Through Emotion’ - a far cry from the 12,000 sportsmen and women who rocked up in Rio for the pre-Games carnival in 2016.
“This isn't the Olympics you wanted to come to,” said Wightman, who will run the 1500 metres on the athletics track later in the Games. “You wanted it to really be the spectacle that you imagine Olympic Games to be.
“I've been lucky enough that I went to watch in Beijing. I went to watch in London. And both of them were incredible just to watch. So I can't imagine how good it must have felt to be an athlete.
“Since the Covid stuff came in, we've known that it was going to be scaled back. But the disappointing one is the fact there is no crowds at all. With the 10,000 Japanese, whatever it was originally meant to be, at least that was something.”
The 27-year-old will instead watch the ceremony on television at the British training base in Yokohama as a Games like no other splutters, precariously, into life.
But the Scot said: “It's still an Olympics. I'm still going to be an Olympian off the back of it. There's still Olympic medals. So I'm holding that pretty close to the forefront of my mind. It's not like my motivation’s dropped at all.”
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