TOKYO - In a masked city of skyscrapers and shrines has begun a great unveiling. In Tokyo the world's talent is about to be revealed and a planet's grit paraded but mostly to silence and relative disinterest.

A sporting festival two centuries old still has its grip on us but it just might be a bit more tenuous. Every Games is measured through numbers but this time there is a grim twist. Before we calculate medals we will count cases.