OLYMPIANS hoping for normal in Paris.

TOKYO — They’ll always have Paris.

That thought, full of promise, has been a lifebuoy for athletes to cling to as they coped with thickets of restrictions at the pandemic-hit Tokyo Games that severely crimped their Olympic experience — and left some hungry for more.

Barred from bringing family and friends with them to Japan, playing in empty arenas and not allowed to sightsee in Tokyo, some athletes found themselves day-dreaming about the French capital’s Olympic rendezvous in 2024. If the coronavirus is tamed by then, the Paris Games could quickly become the party games.

“When Paris happens, I’ll be like, ‘OK, wow, like this is a whole new energy. This is it,’ ” U.S. skateboarder Mariah Duran said. “Maybe I had to have the appetizer before the whole meal.”

Paris officials say they’re betting the pandemic will be over when their turn comes.

But if the coronavirus is still ruining the best-laid plans, then Tokyo has served up a model of how to hold an Olympics even as infections are surging. It pared the Games down to their most essential ingredient: competition. No spectators. No citywide partying. Very little mingling between Olympians and their hosts.

Paris officials were watching closely and say that while they hope for the best, they’ll also plan for the worst.

Toughest for many Tokyo Olympians was not being accompanied to Japan by loved ones who had no choice but to watch them compete on TV. American surfer Carissa Moore said it was “a huge challenge” being separated from her husband and his “strong, constant voice.”

Moore ultimately found her footing to win gold in surfing’s debut as an Olympic sport. As painful as separation was, Tokyo was also a learning experience for the Hawaiian.

“I’m very proud of myself, to be here and stand on my own two feet,” she said.

To limit infection risks, organizers also asked athletes to arrive in Tokyo no earlier than five days before competing and leave within 48 hours of being done — a rapid turnaround that further truncated the Olympic experience.

Belgian skateboarder Axel Cruysberghs, who competed in week one, and his skateboarding wife Lizzie Armanto, who competed in week two, passed each other like ships in the night. As she took off for Tokyo, his flight back to their home was 20 minutes from landing.

“It worked out for our puppy,” she joked.

But it wasn’t the fairy-tale Olympics they’d planned before the pandemic.

“We’d hoped to like be here for a month together and, you know, I could see his event and he could stay for mine,” Armanto said. “But because of covid and everything … ”

Armanto came away from Tokyo having not made up her mind about whether she wants to go again in Paris. In an Instagram livestream from the Olympic residential compound where athletes were largely confined when not training or competing, she was wrestling with cabin fever, complaining of rooms that “feel a little prison-like” and wishing that organizers hadn’t barred athletes from going to watch sports other than their own in their downtime.

“I’ve circled the perimeter quite a few times because what else do you do here?” Armanto asked.

Not being able to pass the time at sports venues was a common complaint.

“That’s something I would have liked to have experienced as an Olympian, to go watch my other teammates, other than wrestlers, compete,” said Elias Kuosmanen of Finland, who wrestled in the Greco-Roman heavyweight class.

But because the pandemic delayed Tokyo by a year, Paris is now only a three-year wait instead of the usual four. And many Olympians will be ready to unwind.