Tokyo 2020 News - General

[AmaniS]

I think most of us have been around long enough that negative Olympic pieces are par for the course. After watching the crowds that were able to gather at open events I think they would have had great ticket sales if only for residents.  One should only be bothered if there are no protests about an Olympics. 

I believe  that in some ways the Olympics do bring out a certain amount of nationalism and it not a bad thing, but in the end most spectators want moments that will make them proud of the human spirit.

Personally, I  think Biles did just the opposite of Kerri Strug. Injury is injury? Why should I give more sympathy to mental than physical? She had to know she was having problems before she came to Tokyo. She should have given her place to someone else to have the experience or compete.

[FYI]

Russia Scoffs at Olympic Ban: ‘Let Them Listen to Classical Music’
 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/world/europe/russia-ban-olympics.amp.html

 

[JMarkSnow2012]

7 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

It's been discussed many times here before.. holding a Winter Olympics during the Northern hemisphere's summer is a non-starter for a number of reasons that cannot be overcome.  I don't doubt that New Zealand could put on a good show, but everyone involved - sports federations, television concerns, among others - would never be accepting of that calendar.  Let alone the clash it would create with the World Cup.

The answer would seem to be holding a Winter Olympics somewhere like South Georgia, or even Antarctica

[iceman530]

Well, from the COVID monster standpoint, halfway through this thing, it has not been anywhere near as bad as it could have been.  We aren't done yet, but if trajectory holds, Tokyo will have done much better than expected keeping COVID from interfering with the Olympics.  Gladly will eat my crow there, I thought we would absolutely see its presence rear its head to a much higher degree than it has thus far.

[MisterSG1]

8 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

It's been discussed many times here before.. holding a Winter Olympics during the Northern hemisphere's summer is a non-starter for a number of reasons that cannot be overcome.  I don't doubt that New Zealand could put on a good show, but everyone involved - sports federations, television concerns, among others - would never be accepting of that calendar.  Let alone the clash it would create with the World Cup.

Would there be a clash if the games were held in late August-September? The only ever Winter Pan American Games for example happened in September in Argentina in 1990.

Doesn't FIS hold its traditional alpine events in the southern hemisphere in August?

TV concerns, if we are going into September, there would be upsets with NFL and NBC. But as it stands, NBC only covers one NFL game per week (usually), the Sunday Night Football broadcast of course. The clash between the 2022 World Cup and FOX's football coverage will occur next year and that doesn't really seem to be an issue. So I do think saying TV concerns is merely a cop out.

I think the southern hemisphere Olympics, be it in South America or Oceania would be a hit mainly because of the unusual curiosity it would be to most people.

[baron-pierreIV]

A WOGs happening outside of February is NEVER going to happen.  (1) It will throw off the entire sports calendar -- not only for Winter sports; but will affect the other non-winter sports as well.  (2)  The WOGs' lifeline are the advertisers who buy time on TV for their winter-related products and services.  There is this mass of northern hemisphere economies (No America, Europe, East Asia) that a southern hemisphere in Aug-September simply CANNOT match. 

Why would the cold and flu medicine companies of the north buy airtime in July and August???    Extrapolate that to a myriad other winter-related products -- and you will understand why a Winter Games outside of the February-March slot will NEVER be feasible.  

Edited August 2, 2021 by baron-pierreIV

[Quaker2001]

8 hours ago, AmaniS said:

Personally, I  think Biles did just the opposite of Kerri Strug. Injury is injury? Why should I give more sympathy to mental than physical? She had to know she was having problems before she came to Tokyo. She should have given her place to someone else to have the experience or compete.

Biles was good enough to qualify for all 4 individual event finals.  That's how much better she is than anyone else out there that she wasn't right and still put up the highest score in qualifying.  Until she had the issue with the vault in the team final, we didn't truly know what was going on with her.  So to say "she should have not competed" is absurd Monday morning quarterbacking.

And if we're going to make a comparison to Strug.. she asked Bela Karolyi if they needed her to attempt the 2nd vault to win the gold.  The answer was no, they did not (only a 9.9 from Russia could have beaten Strug's first score and that would have been higher than literally any other routine the entire Olympics.  There's the other aspect that she wanted to get the last spot for the all-around, which she did.  But obviously then couldn't complete.

They're different scenarios.  Empathize with Strug because she was forced to compete when she probably shouldn't have.  Empathize with Biles because mental health is a bigger deal than we ever give it credit for and she her it in her to acknowledge that rather than risking her health and safety.

[Quaker2001]

1 hour ago, iceman530 said:

Well, from the COVID monster standpoint, halfway through this thing, it has not been anywhere near as bad as it could have been.  We aren't done yet, but if trajectory holds, Tokyo will have done much better than expected keeping COVID from interfering with the Olympics.  Gladly will eat my crow there, I thought we would absolutely see its presence rear its head to a much higher degree than it has thus far.

Here's the issue, though.  COVID is surging throughout Tokyo.  And the test positivity rate is increasing.  So the question at this point is not whether or not the Olympics could be held safely.  Clearly they can.  The question is did the Olympics worsen the pandemic, if nothing else for taking resources after from prevention measures that could have been allocated elsewhere.  That's the narrative we're likely to hear after the fact and I don't think it's that far off-base

[iceman530]

51 minutes ago, Quaker2001 said:

Here's the issue, though.  COVID is surging throughout Tokyo.  And the test positivity rate is increasing.  So the question at this point is not whether or not the Olympics could be held safely.  Clearly they can.  The question is did the Olympics worsen the pandemic, if nothing else for taking resources after from prevention measures that could have been allocated elsewhere.  That's the narrative we're likely to hear after the fact and I don't think it's that far off-base

 

completely agree, that is a very valid take.  Tokyo and the IOC are less then a week away from breathing a collective sigh of relief it went off reasonably okay. 

Now we see if the IOC makes a flex and awards winter games to Sapporo 2030 .  No bids.  No strings attached.  Handshake deal that is painless and at the same time appealing enough to not pass up from Japan's point of view.  That would be kinda a "sorry" and a "thanks" gesture all at the same time from the IOC to Japan.  I know odds are small but......heres hoping, I really want a Sapporo games thats probably not gonna happen.  

[FYI]

3 hours ago, iceman530 said:

Well, from the COVID monster standpoint, halfway through this thing, it has not been anywhere near as bad as it could have been.  We aren't done yet, but if trajectory holds, Tokyo will have done much better than expected keeping COVID from interfering with the Olympics.  Gladly will eat my crow there, I thought we would absolutely see its presence rear its head to a much higher degree than it has thus far.

Remember two years ago when all we had to worry about with these Olympics was with Japan's searing heat? Oh, how trivial that was in hindsight Corona comparison.

[FYI]

2 hours ago, MisterSG1 said:

The clash between the 2022 World Cup and FOX's football coverage will occur next year and that doesn't really seem to be an issue. So I do think saying TV concerns is merely a cop out.

I've been thinking about that as of late myself. Not so much with the Winter Olympics, but the Summer Olympics. The IOC has specifically narrowed down the window of when a host city can host the summer Games - July 15th-Aug 31st. So much is made of that, the IOC can't deviate from this window cause of said TV contract negotiations. But if FIFA is now going to have a World Cup in Nov/Dec, why can't the IOC do the same in the future.

Case in point, Tokyo's unbearable summer heat warranted another October hosting like it was in 1964. Albeit though, the 2022 WC was moved from the summer months after Qatar was awarded that tournament. Still, this should be a test of how well the WC will do against other said American sport events vying for advertisement attention at the same time.

[Hansfromdenmark]

If New Zealand and other southern countries could host a wintergames in august/september. Why don´t the winter seasen start with world cups in Biathlon, alpine competitions etc etc in those countries and expand the season. The wintersports season are generally short. So why not expand the world cup season... If a succes, perhaps in time an early winter games could happen. But get big world cup events in those time slots at first I think... 

[Sir Rols]

It’s intriguing to think what might have happened had NZ thrown its hat in for the dire 2022 race. I still doubt they would have got it, but it would have put the notion to the test at least. It may have been their ever-so-slightest chance -I doubt now they‘’S ever be able to receive the invite to move on to “preferred candidate” stage now.

As for Qatar - well, that was the other sh!tty decision for 2022. It won on one of the dodgiest votes imaginable, and then FIFA was left to clean up the mess of their own making. Qatar’s vague promises of air-conditioned stadiums turned out to be so-much bullish!t and FIFA was forced to change the dates to make it work. NOBODY, bar maybe the Qatari royal family and a few FIFA executive committee members with bigger bank balances, were happy with the shift.

I won’t dispute that the WC is also a big deal in the States (I was in the US for the last one), but I doubt the US TV rights holders hold anything near as much sway as NBC has over the Olympics. It’ll also be interesting to see when push-comes-to-shove whether the round ball or the pigskin holds the most viewers loyalties in the US next year (though I’d guess the time zones of matches probably will avoid many, if any, direct match clashes).

Edited August 3, 2021 by Sir Rols

[iceman530]

I think the thing I learned most about Japan is never, ever, ever plan a holiday in the summer months.  If I ever go, it will be March or November, lol

[Quaker2001]

5 hours ago, MisterSG1 said:

Would there be a clash if the games were held in late August-September? The only ever Winter Pan American Games for example happened in September in Argentina in 1990.

Doesn't FIS hold its traditional alpine events in the southern hemisphere in August?

TV concerns, if we are going into September, there would be upsets with NFL and NBC. But as it stands, NBC only covers one NFL game per week (usually), the Sunday Night Football broadcast of course. The clash between the 2022 World Cup and FOX's football coverage will occur next year and that doesn't really seem to be an issue. So I do think saying TV concerns is merely a cop out.

I think the southern hemisphere Olympics, be it in South America or Oceania would be a hit mainly because of the unusual curiosity it would be to most people.

Curiosity generally doesn't bring viewers to their TV sets.  Are people really going to gravitate towards winter sports in the middle of July when the weather is good?  I doubt it.  And yes, FIS does hold some events in June/July/August, but they rarely get top athletes to participate.  A lot of them will train in the southern hemisphere, but competing is a different story.  But the problem - and this goes to Hans' point - what happens to the calendar?  Throws off the entire year to have the premier event of all the winter sports in August as opposed to its usually spot in February in the middle of the world cup seasons.  It's not like they can extend that out through the summer.  So as much as you say it might be interesting, all of the sports federations would never go for it?  Would a southern hemisphere country really want to invest in building a sliding track or a ski resort capable of host world class competition?

As for the TV coverage.. NBC has the NFL once a week, but they also have Notre Dame as well.  They have golf running into September.  The World Cup issue with Fox is a little different because all of the games in Qatar will be going on in the mornings and early afternoon.  That's going to be a problem for them.  On the Sunday of the final, what do you think is going to be on Fox.. NFL or World Cup?  I think we both know the answer to that.  And again, it's not just TV concerns, but all of the sports federations and their calendars as well

[Quaker2001]

2 hours ago, FYI said:

I've been thinking about that as of late myself. Not so much with the Winter Olympics, but the Summer Olympics. The IOC has specifically narrowed down the window of when a host city can host the summer Games - July 15th-Aug 31st. So much is made of that, the IOC can't deviate from this window cause of said TV contract negotiations. But if FIFA is now going to have a World Cup in Nov/Dec, why can't the IOC do the same in the future.

Case in point, Tokyo's unbearable summer heat warranted another October hosting like it was in 1964. Albeit though, the 2022 WC was moved from the summer months after Qatar was awarded that tournament. Still, this should be a test of how well the WC will do against other said American sport events vying for advertisement attention at the same time.

Look at the circumstances of 2022 with the World Cup.  They bid for a World Cup in the usual summer window with the promise of air conditioned stadiums.  Then it was "psyche, just kidding, yea we need to do this later in the year."  And Fox was ready to sue FIFA as a result, so FIFA basically just handed them the rights to 2026 to prevent a fight.  In hindsight, that's a big oops.  Imagine how much those rights might have gone for in open bidding once the the United States/Canada/Mexico were announced as hosts.

Cities could bid outside the usual window if they wanted.  Doha offered up an October bid.  But the IOC told them "DOn't.. HA!"  We know Australia wrestled with that, whether to bid with Brisbane or with Melbourne.  The calendar won out there.  It's possible in the new city selection process, the timing may be negotiable.  But there's still a preference on the part of a lot of people to stick to that window, for reasons that go beyond TV negotiations.

[StefanMUC]

I think there’s other threads for the whole southern hemisphere WG debate already….

As for Tokyo/Covid…another test for these “safe Games” IOC storylines will be how many athletes/coaches return home and find out that did not (only) bring a medal but also the virus because these bubbles really only exist in the fantasy of the organisers.

[Quaker2001]

1 hour ago, StefanMUC said:

I think there’s other threads for the whole southern hemisphere WG debate already….

As for Tokyo/Covid…another test for these “safe Games” IOC storylines will be how many athletes/coaches return home and find out that did not (only) bring a medal but also the virus because these bubbles really only exist in the fantasy of the organisers.

So far though, the bubble is holding pretty strong.  Helps to have an abundance of testing.  The question I have is at what point do they stop testing people who are on their way out of Tokyo?  Give these organizers credit.. what they're pulling off thus far is something a lot of people thought would be impossible.

[stryker]

22 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

So far though, the bubble is holding pretty strong.  Helps to have an abundance of testing.  The question I have is at what point do they stop testing people who are on their way out of Tokyo?  Give these organizers credit.. what they're pulling off thus far is something a lot of people thought would be impossible.

I think it depends on who you ask. Several doctors have come out and said the bubble has burst but we aren't seeing the outbreaks among athletes some suspected. The real test will come two weeks after the Olympics. If we see spikes in Tokyo or a number of athletes returning home and testing positive, we will know the bubble failed.

[Quaker2001]

1 hour ago, stryker said:

I think it depends on who you ask. Several doctors have come out and said the bubble has burst but we aren't seeing the outbreaks among athletes some suspected. The real test will come two weeks after the Olympics. If we see spikes in Tokyo or a number of athletes returning home and testing positive, we will know the bubble failed.

Depends how we define the "bubble" in the first place.  This was never going to be like the NBA or NHL bubbles which were pretty airtight.  This one was never going to be that.  Yes, there were a handful of positives, but more of those were early on when athletes first got to Tokyo and probably brought COVID in with them.  But how much did that meaningfully affect any events? 

The number of cases in Japan is still trending upward.  Not sure how much of that can be traced to the Olympics though.  Again, testing and prevention measures are keeping the Olympics safe, the odds of athletes taking COVID home with them are slim and if they do test positive, it probably wasn't from the Olympics.

[Nacre]

"A Belarusian Olympic sprinter who had a public feud with officials from her team at the Tokyo Games said Tuesday that they "made it clear" she would face punishment if she returned home to an autocratic government that has relentlessly stifled any criticism."

Belarus sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya says punishment awaited her back home

The IOC may feel forced to discipline Belarus with other athletes already facing punishment for criticizing the Lukashenko regime.

[FYI]

So the boards are already starting to trickle down, after a big bump in activity that hasn't been seen in quite a while, once Tokyo 2020ne opened. There'll probably be another uptick during the closing, but then these forums will likely become like a ghost-town once again (other than the occasional, meaningless boycott discussion in the Beijing thread), until perhaps maybe at the start of the new year when Beijing 2022 will literally be right around the corner. The no spectators at the these Games also probably didn't help much in the news category either. And now that we don't have the bid races to talk about anymore in-between Games, well, it makes these boards virtually moot these days.

[Palette86]

Quote

Tokyo faces stifling heat and then a tropical storm as Olympics near their end

Athletes and others involved in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo face punishing heat and the prospect of a wind-driven deluge as the games come to a close over the next several days. Japan is slogging through its most extreme heat of the summer while a tropical storm may pass very close to Tokyo this weekend.

Oppressive heat and humidity smothered Tokyo on Wednesday, “torturing the Olympians and volunteers,” tweeted Sayaka Mori, a local meteorologist. The brutal combination made it feel like 109 degrees during the afternoon.

Thursday and Friday are predicted to be just as hot, if not hotter.

Relief from the heat arrives this weekend, but that’s when the Joint Typhoon Warning Center predicts a tropical storm may barrel toward the region.

As of Thursday morning local time, a tropical depression had developed near Kadena Air Base in Japan’s far southern prefecture of Okinawa, nearly 950 miles southwest of Tokyo. Its peak winds were 35 mph.

The center’s forecast calls for the depression to strengthen into a tropical storm later Thursday as it travels northeastward. By Saturday, it will be parallel to Japan’s mainland of Honshu over the ocean, making its closest approach to Tokyo on Sunday. The center says a “favorable environment will fuel steady intensification” and predicts peak winds of 65 mph when in Tokyo’s vicinity. However, it cautions confidence in the track and intensity forecast are low.

It’s possible that the storm remains offshore with minimal impacts for mainland Japan. But if the storm stays near the center of the current projected track, it could bring torrential rain and damaging winds to Tokyo between Saturday and Sunday night.

Golf.com writes that the storm could cut the women’s golf event from 72 to 54 holes because the final round is scheduled for Saturday, when rain could begin. All Olympic competitions need to be finished by 8 p.m. local time Sunday, and the storminess could linger through that time.

The opening 18 holes of the women’s golf event were played amid Wednesday’s excessive heat. Jack Fulghum, caddie for golfer Lexi Thompson, withdrew after 15 holes. “I am about to pass out,” he told Thompson, NBCMiami wrote, before being helped off the course. Another caddie was rushed to the hospital because of heat stroke, Golf.com reported.

Weather also plagued the Olympics opening week when Tropical Storm Nepartak, which merely grazed Tokyo, forced schedule adjustments for archery, rowing and sailing.

Then, after the storm passed, excessive heat became problematic.

Daniil Medvedev, the world’s No. 2 tennis player, struggled with the heat during a match July 28. “I can finish the match, but I can die,” he told chair umpire Carlos Ramos. Medvedev subsequently managed to withstand the temperatures and won his match

But “Spanish player Paula Badosa was less fortunate,” ESPN.com reported. “She left the court in a wheelchair … because of heatstroke.”

Reuters reported that through Sunday, 30 people involved in the Olympics had suffered from heat-related illnesses.

The Olympics have coincided with the hottest time of year in Tokyo, and the heat through Friday is anticipated to be the most intense of the games. NBCMiami reported that the Swedish and Canadian women’s soccer teams requested that Friday’s gold medal match be rescheduled from the middle of the day.

The punishing heat comes as a massive ridge of high pressure over the northern central Pacific or “heat dome” flexes southwestward. For more than a week this heat dome has brought record high temperatures to Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, and generated an “exceptional” marine heat wave over the Pacific. While it has only now extended over Honshu, it ranks among Hokkaido’s longest-lasting and most intense heat events ever observed.

Tokyo was a controversial choice to host the games because of its hot and humid conditions, which have been made worse by climate change. July and August average temperatures have warmed by 2.7 degrees in Tokyo since 1964, the last time the Olympics were held there, according to Climate Central, a science communications firm.

News source:The Washington Post

Link to this article:https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/08/04/tokyo-tropical-storm-heat-olympics/

[Olympian2005]

13 hours ago, FYI said:

So the boards are already starting to trickle down, after a big bump in activity that hasn't been seen in quite a while, once Tokyo 2020ne opened. There'll probably be another uptick during the closing, but then these forums will likely become like a ghost-town once again (other than the occasional, meaningless boycott discussion in the Beijing thread), until perhaps maybe at the start of the new year when Beijing 2022 will literally be right around the corner. The no spectators at the these Games also probably didn't help much in the news category either. And now that we don't have the bid races to talk about anymore in-between Games, well, it makes these boards virtually moot these days.

The board is really what we the posters make of it.

There is no reason why it should be quiet just because there is no bid races.

i see lots of members on here at times yet they do not post anything. I have posted things or tried to start up topics and no one has replied or engaged in discussion.

I even want to/have tried to share my own sports journey to one day compete at LA2028 but no one seems interested or wants to engage with me.

There is no reason why we cant keep discussing all upcoming sports competitions, other events and even have discussions on past events, different parts of the olympics such as our like and dislikes.

We all as members just need to start talking, discussing, arguing and making this site interactive and fun.

[iceman530]

I reckon Beijing discussions will be pretty active just because it is going to be so unusual and so uncomfortable in so many ways.  Japan thus far has gone off as well as one could have expected, all things considered.  If the boat during the triathlon is the most embarrassing thing, I suppose thats a pretty good day overall.  Still a few more days to go though.  Some of those final day events could face some pretty disgusting heat and humidity.