TOKYO — The Olympics, for all their charm, are a rather cruel setup.
They are a four-year time bomb. The world’s best athletes are assigned a date and a time to perform. They prepare, often in solitude and anonymity, for a single moment on the calendar. It gets closer with each tick of the clock.
As the countdown approaches zero, a sea of strangers expecting to be entertained turns its collective gaze in their direction, eager to dole out pass-fail grades. Reputations are made or broken. Lives are changed.
No sports event does it like the Olympics.