Gymnasts excited to perform to huge crowds

Gymnasts returning to the Olympics in Paris are looking forward to relishing loud cheers and support from family, friends and fans after a surreal, audience-less Games in Tokyo three years ago.

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The Covid-19 pandemic postponed Tokyo 2020 by a year and even then forced a ban on spectators, including athletes' closest relatives, for health reasons.

Mexico's Alexa Moreno, in Paris for her third Games, said Tokyo did feel like an Olympic experience but that it was not the same as having family and an audience in the stands as she waited for her turn to perform.

"I like to have people watching it gives me a lot of energy," she said after training on July 25 at the Bercy Arena, where the gymnastics events begin on July 27.