Costly, quiet, clean and lonely: How the 'COVID Olympics' are different for our athletes Competing at the Olympic Games in a pandemic has been an unusual experience for these Aussie athletes. 4 August 2021 The coronavirus pandemic has made the Tokyo Olympics like no other â devoid of most of the fanfare and festivities that make the quadrennial event a celebration of sport and the international community. They're also on track to become the most expensive summer games ever â a bitter pill to swallow for the Japanese public who helped pay for it, but haven't been able to enjoy it fully. The one-year delay cost an estimated $US3 billion ($4.054 billion), and Jack Anderson, a professor of sports law at Melbourne University, said the total bill had soared.Â