Ikarus360

Oh, I just re-read and its actually just the annual Tokyo Marathon which got affected. Still though, as much as the organizing comittee keeps saying the Coronavirus wont affect the games, things like these are making me have my doubts, specially considering it appears the worst is yet to come with this virus.

As if moving the marathon to Sapporo wasn't enough of a crappy decision, now this happened. Thanks for nothing, China https://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2020/02/tokyo-marathon-cancels-mass.html Tokyo Marathon Cancels Mass Participation Race, To Go Ahead as Elite-Only Event (updated) Update: The Mar. 8 Nagoya Women's Marathon, the world's largest women-only marathon, is now also looking at canceling its mass-participation division. In response to the spread of the coronavirus within Japan, the Tokyo Marathon Foundation has decided to cancel the Mar. 1 Tokyo Marathon's 38,000-runner mass-participation race. Founded in 2007, the Tokyo Marathon is Japan's largest mass-participation marathon, with more than a million spectators along its course every year. A men's Olympic marathon team selection race, this year's Tokyo Marathon will be an unusual spectacle with only 200 elite runners including national record holder Suguru Osako (Nike) and previous record holder Yuta Shitara (Honda). The Tokyo Marathon Foundation is also looking at significantly cutting back the activities of the 11,000 volunteers involved in the event's operations. On Feb. 1 the Foundation already asked roughly 1,800 participants living in China to refrain from taking part in this year's race and had announced plans to take measures such as distributing masks to participants on the day of the race. However, with the number of people infected with the virus in Tokyo continuing to increase, additional plans to mitigate risk were discussed. As a result of these discussions, the Foundation made the decision to cancel the entire mass-participation race, saying, "Preventing the spread of infection is our top priority." The Foundation is looking at possible reimbursement of participants' entry fees and other issues. But with the decision coming less than two weeks before the race, tens of thousands of amateur runners who have already paid for transportation and accommodations are left with nothing more than questions and confusion. Translator's note: For some context, this decision was made against a backdrop of other major public events including the Emperor's birthday celebrations also being canceled. Efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus now may impact whether Tokyo is in a position to host the Olympic Games in five months and should be interpreted at least partially in that context. At the same time, however, yesterday there were at least seven major road races with 10,000+ participants across Japan. Details have yet to be made clear on which divisions exactly are being canceled, but given the estimate of a 200-runner race it seems likely that anyone not among the 133 men and 43 women listed in this elite field PDF or among the wheelchair field will be out of luck, including the Run as One division.

More pics of the rehearsal plus the mini cauldron. https://twitter.com/tokyo2020/status/1228664283132657665

Some rather dissapointing news about the opening after a planned number featuring the Ainu (a native tribe of Japan which lives in Hokkaido, and which the japanese government has been repeatedly acussed of abusing and considering second class citizens) was recently announced to be cut due to "lack of time". Yet they had lots of time to add pandering to Japanese animation and futurism. Embarassing considering hosts like Rio, Vancouver, Salt Lake and even Beijing gave their ethnicities some spotlight. https://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/article/390859

4F has unveiled the Greek uniforms. https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/02/06/greeces-official-tokyo-olympics-2020-uniforms-unveiled/ Also, Nike has revealed the rest of Team USA uniforms for Tokyo 2020. https://www.standard.co.uk/fashion/nike-2020-tokyo-olympics-sustainable-kit-a4355331.html Basketball team Podium outfits Track and Field Kenya has also unveiled its outfits....which are not being very well received at all atm. https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/49449-ugly-kenya-olympics-kit-angers-kenyans

USA, Nigeria and South Korea have unveiled their kits for 2020, which is most likely what we will also see in the olympics. https://www.forbes.com/sites/demetriusbell/2020/02/05/us-soccer-nigeria-and-south-korea-unveil-new-nike-designed-kits-for-2020/#492bfabc1d4c Also, Nike has designed the outfits for the debut of Skateboarding in the olympic program. Specifically for the US, Brazil and France. https://www.dezeen.com/2020/02/05/nike-designs-first-ever-olympic-skateboarding-uniforms-for-tokyo-2020/

^^ That will depend of Japan and if they can be organized enough to prevent a massive epidemic. So far all of the cases are on that cruiseship which has been locked/cuarintined. Let's hope that's all which happens.

Ironically, the test events and events/celebrations marking the 2 years to go countdown did got cancelled.

Japan currently having ugly issues dealing with a infected cruise with thousands of people, stationed in Yokohama at this moment. https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-thousands-stranded-on-cruise-ship-as-death-toll-rises-to-636-11928035 Everything was going extremely smoothly for Japan until now. Too bad China's habit of eating anything which moves screwed what had been so far a perfect record (excluding the logo fiasco).

Ariake Arena, venue for Volleball and Wheelchair basket was finished and opened some days ago. https://tokyo2020.org/en/news/notice/20200203-01.html

Olympics are approaching and given Japan has already revealed their ceremony uniforms some days ago, I think it's appropiate to open this thread. Uniform is meant to be a reversal of the 1964 one.

My bad, glad to know the presidency terms in SK are limited. SK ever since the 2000's seems to be a country which swings between the left and the right (00's being in favor of having better relations with NK , then the last decade having said relationships strained and seeing the rise of two conservative governments.) Maybe the swing to the left was mostly due to a very dissapointed populace after the corruption scandal which saw Park Geun Hye getting impeached, but now that it's been almost 4 years since it happened, they are getting conservative again for what you're saying. I hope a Seoul only bid (Busan would also be an interesting choice) ends up becoming the reality. Let's just hope the North doesn't start to chimp out again like in the 80's and bomb airplaines when things didn't worked their way back when Pyongyang demanded to share venues with Seoul in 1988.

Current president is very obsessed with pleasing the North (remember the unified team and allowance of North korean diplomats in PC2018 was mostly his idea), in part due to how strained the relationships were during the two predecessing governments. Sadly its very likely he will get reelected so don't expect this diplomacy position to change anytime soon. Like Roger said, it's a big shame because Seoul has it everything and a serious bid from their part would easily surpass the others. But Pyongyang is being absolute deadweight which damages the bid prestige.

Okay design, simple yet elegant and mantains coherence with the brand. Though I kind of miss the colorful Rio 2016 tickets to be honest. Also, noticed the opening/closing ceremonies tickets designs were not revealed. Will be interesting to take a look at them since they sometimes, though not always, give away details of what to expect for the show (London 2012 tickets were basically spoiling us the cauldron design). Rio 2016....not as much, possibly a hint of the olympic ring forest?.

I thought they would put this crazy plan to rest after three defeats. Specially now with this chimera mess of a government which has been recently formed in Spain and a possible new economic crisis on the horizon (have absolute zero faith on the sickos who are now in power to dodge it). Not having much hopes for it to be quite honest.