I just got back from visiting the Games in person. The highlight was absolutely the women’s football gold medal match. Being present and watching from the 12th row to see my country win gold and Marta’s last match for Brazil? Priceless.
Least favorite thing? The USOC charging $350 a head for their hospitality house when many other countries’ were far more reasonably priced or even free. Team Japan’s house, for example, was free to enter, had a nice retrospective exhibit about Tokyo 2020, and had volunteers teaching visitors how to make origami Eiffel Towers. Casa Brasil was one big party, as was Casa Mexico.
The silver lining was that thanks to the USOC’s price gouging, a lot of displaced Americans (my wife and I included) ended up having a great time hanging with Team Canada.
I think part of it was to discourage any stupid political stunts - nobody’s going to spend that kind of money just for the opportunity to run around Team USA’s headquarters yelling “free Palestine,” after all.