Covering an Olympic Games is as challenging as sports journalism gets

Covering an Olympic Games is as challenging as sports journalism gets. If a world championships is the pinnacle of a given sport, then imagine covering 33 world championships simultaneously – and then imagine doing that over just a 17-day period.

The Tokyo Olympics brings with it the added complication of an eight-hour time difference back to the UK – and even further to the US. It all adds up to a hugely difficult fortnight or so for a sports desk to handle.

First of all it takes much more than just a sports desk, with the US, news, culture, lifestyle and comment departments all doing their bit with the eyes of the world transfixed on Japan.

The standout stories of any Games transcend “just” sport, with even the most casual fan drawn in by the unique brilliance that any Olympics sheds a spotlight on.

It has been a brilliant Games so far. Delayed an extra year by the coronavirus pandemic, it has certainly been worth the wait – with Great Britain doing their bit to keep those bleary-eyed viewers watching on in the early hours back home interested.

It was a historic first week in the pool for Britain’s swimmers with golden boy Adam Peaty leading the way. Charlotte Dujardin became the most decorated British female Olympian in history with a sixth medal of her career in dressage, while Tom Pidcock showed nerves of steel to claim gold in the mountain biking – despite it being just months after breaking his collarbone in the build-up.

Perhaps the most emotional medal of all, though, came in the diving – with Tom Daley finally reaching the top step of the podium at long last to complete his Olympic set and sign off in fairytale fashion.

The human stories, like Daley’s, are what make any Olympic Games – and they’ve not been in short supply. And with another week of the very best sport in the world to go, there’s still surely plenty more to come.

Yours,

Ben Burrows

Sports Editor