As far as crowds go, it was the biggest yet at Tokyo 2020.
It was the night of the women's final in the 87+ kilo class weightlifting at the Tokyo International Forum.
According to news site insidethegames.biz, media seats in the venue were oversubscribed by 300 per cent.
It was the night history was made with New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard becoming the first openly transgender female Olympian.
In the build up there had been plenty written, perhaps only outdone by the number of abusive social media posts by those who object to the inclusion of transgender women, despite fulfilling a strict set of policy requirements determined by the IOC and the International Weightlifting Federation.
But for those who came only for Hubbard they missed the real show: China's 21-year-old world champion Li Wenwen.
Li is so superior to the rest of the field they must wonder how they will ever catch her.
She came with her own crowd, a quarter of the room who in unison shouted back responses to Li's screams before she attempted each lift.
"I'll do my best," she shouted as she readied her hands on the bar.
"Good luck," the Chinese support crowd shouted back.
Even without the cameras following the athletes from their warm-up room out to the mat on centre-stage you could hear Li coming. As she rounded the corner at the back of the stage ahead of her lifts there was a noticeable rise from her supporters who knew too well that the night belonged to her.
Li is in a class of her own.
She snatched 140kg, made 180kg in the clean-and-jerk look easy, and with a total 320kg — an Olympic record — she walked away with gold.
Li competes in the heaviest category for women, and is coached by one of China's legendary champions, Wu Meijin.
An Olympic silver medallist from Athens 2004 in the men's 56kg class, Wu was also a two-time weightlifting world champion, and while small in stature his shadow is large, such is the respect he garners inside China's sporting circles.
Li and Wu are a team. After her final lift, while the spectators clapped and cheered, she beckoned for her coach to join her on stage. He stayed quietly off to the side, leaving her to have her own moment of Olympic glory.
She was having none of it.
Li walked over and led him by his arm back into the spotlight he once owned. It was a special moment.
"My coach has also been very kind to me," Li said when asked about their bond.
While China's anthem played for the country's 29th gold medal here in Tokyo, Li was flanked by Great Britain's Emily Jade Campbell, who lifted a combined 283kg, a single kilo more than the USA's Sarah Robles, enough to separate silver from bronze.
Li held her arms above her head in a heart sign, with a smile to light up the room. She explained afterwards she'd received so many positive messages on social media while at the Games that she couldn't reply to them all, but she wanted supporters to know she loved them.
The messages flooded in when they heard she'd been sleeping on the floor in the athletes' village.
Much of this was missed by many.
Of those that filled the oversubscribed media seats, less than a dozen bothered attending the press conference with the medal winners.
As soon as Hubbard was eliminated from the competition, finishing in last place after failing three attempts, at least a third of the room emptied.
That was the story they came to write, despite the fact a better one was unfolding.
An American journalist asked the medal winners whether they wanted to make a comment given the historic moment of Hubbard's inclusion.
America's Sarah Robles said, "No thank you".
Great Britain's Emily Jade Campbell had no comment.
And China's Li Wenwen answered, "I have nothing to say, I just respect the rules".
