It’s time to cut back on the Olympics

Today, the world witnessed one of the most absurd spectacles in sporting history: a pricey, overblown ceremony exuding the usual platitudes about togetherness and international co-operation — delivered to an almost entirely empty stadium, just the use of light to give the illusion of an audience. The Tokyo Olympics has been seriously compromised by the pandemic. But why not seize the opportunity to change the games for good — and build back smaller?

The Olympics is a popular spectacle, to be sure. In the end, a majority of the British public even came to agree that the £8.77 billion cost was worth it (it might be seen as even better value now, when this sum would buy you only a quarter of a test and trace scheme). But it is being squashed beneath its own weight.