Originally published 2021-08-18.
During the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in the summer of 2021, an anonymous Japanese man stood every morning at a busy crossing outside the athletes' village holding a hand-made sign. His message, written in English, told every passing competitor that they were still the best even without a medal, and urged them to believe in themselves. Athletes photographed him from their buses, shared the pictures on Instagram, and he became one of the quiet favourites of the Games.
Here is what is known about him, why his sign struck such a chord, and what it tells us about the pandemic Olympics.
Who he was and where he stood
The man asked to stay anonymous, and no name or age has been published. According to Time Out Tokyo, which spoke with him, his spot was the large Harumi 3-chome crossing next to the Olympic Village, the waterfront complex built on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay where thousands of athletes lived during the Games.
He arrived as early as 7:15 a.m. and stayed for about two hours, lifting his sign whenever a bus carrying athletes rolled past on its way to training or competition. With spectators banned from almost every venue, a lone supporter at the roadside was one of the few friendly faces many competitors saw in person.
From a welcome to "you're still the best"
He started on July 22, 2021, the day before the opening ceremony, with a simple sign welcoming the athletes. On July 26 he changed it. He told Time Out that he had noticed how much attention was going to the medal count, and he wanted to remind competitors that winning a medal is not what makes them the best.
The new placard read: "Good morning athletes! Even if you don't get a medal, you're still the best!! So believe in yourself!" He planned to keep going until the final day of the Olympics, Sunday, August 8.
The Facebook post below, shared by a Japan travel page, was one of many that carried his photo around the world.
Why a simple sign went viral
Part of the appeal is the arithmetic of the Olympics. Tokyo 2020 had 339 medal events and more than 11,000 athletes, which means the large majority of people on those buses were always going to go home without a medal. Many had trained for years, and some had their careers stretched by an extra year of uncertainty when the Games were postponed. A message aimed at all of them, not just the favourites, felt generous.
The timing mattered too. The Tokyo Games took place under a state of emergency, with no public spectators, daily testing and athletes kept largely inside a bubble. Several high-profile competitors spoke openly that summer about mental health and the pressure to perform. Against that background, a stranger at a road crossing with a cheerful, slightly breathless sign looked like the human warmth the empty stadiums were missing.
Online reactions were overwhelmingly kind. People called him the embodiment of the Olympic spirit, and some joked that he deserved a medal of his own more than anyone on the buses.
What sport psychology says about "medal or nothing"
His instinct lines up with a familiar idea in sport psychology: athletes tend to cope better when their sense of worth is not tied only to results. Research on motivation often distinguishes between focusing on mastery and personal improvement and focusing purely on beating others; the first is generally linked to more persistence and less anxiety. A placard cannot change a competition, but the message on it echoes what many coaches try to teach.
There is a well-known curiosity in Olympic research as well: studies of medal-ceremony photos have suggested that bronze medallists often look happier than silver medallists, because they compare themselves with finishing off the podium rather than with winning gold. How we judge success depends heavily on what we compare ourselves with, which is exactly the frame the man at Harumi was trying to shift.
For everyday readers, the takeaway travels well beyond sport. Effort, showing up and doing your best on the day are worth recognising, whether or not the scoreboard agrees.
A Games of two years and no crowds
A detail that still confuses people: the event is officially called Tokyo 2020, but it took place from July 23 to August 8, 2021. The International Olympic Committee and Japanese organisers announced the postponement on March 24, 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the only time in Olympic history that a Games has been delayed rather than cancelled. The name was kept for branding and contracts.
The athletes' village at Harumi was planned to be converted into apartments after the Games, so the crossing where the man stood was, in a sense, at the edge of a future neighbourhood rather than a permanent sports site.
Were these really the least-watched Olympics?
Reports at the time often said these were among the least-watched Games in modern history. That is true for some markets, not the whole world. In the United States, NBC's average prime-time audience across platforms was about 15.5 million a night, down 42% from Rio 2016 and its lowest Summer Games average since it began covering them in 1988. Reasons offered included the 13-hour time difference, which meant many results were known before they aired, the empty stands, and a general decline in traditional TV viewing. At the same time NBC reported a record 5.5 billion minutes of streaming.
Globally, the International Olympic Committee said in December 2021 that about 3.05 billion people followed Tokyo 2020 on television or digital platforms, and that broadcast partners' digital platforms recorded 28 billion video views, up 139% on Rio. So the picture is one of audiences moving online, not simply disappearing.
The lasting lesson from Harumi
The man at the crossing never sought attention, never gave his name and did not try to turn his moment into anything bigger. He made a sign, stood in the summer heat for two hours a day and meant every word. That is probably why the photos still get shared whenever the Olympics come around.
If you want to borrow his idea, it is easy: notice the people who put in the work, not just the ones who win, and tell them so.
Sources: Time Out Tokyo, August 2021: This man stands outside the Tokyo Olympic Village every day to motivate athletes; Wikipedia: 2020 Summer Olympics; NPR, 9 August 2021: NBC touts a silver lining in historically low viewership for the Tokyo Olympics; IOC, 8 December 2021: Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 watched by more than 3 billion people; My Modern Met (original tip). Embedded post: MTJ Japan Travel on Facebook.
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