Last weekend, the American sprinter Justin Gatlin walked to the starting line of a 100-meter race at Olympic Stadium in Tokyo alongside six other sprinters. It was perhaps one of the more ordinary sights the running world had seen in the past year and a half.
Gatlin, a three-time Olympian and a five-time Olympic medalist, was one of just nine international athletes who had been invited to compete in a test event ahead of the Summer Games that included more than 350 athletes and 1,620 operational staff members who worked to stage a smooth and safe event.
The meet — called Ready Steady Tokyo — was the latest in a series of test events that have been held around Japan as the country readies for an abnormal Olympic year.