Potential for cancellation of Tokyo 2020

[Finnice]

While I totally accept the decision of not having the overseas audience but still trying to organize the competition, I am still sad that I don't get the possibility to cheer to my favorites live.
But I hope they will go on with the Olys.

 

[Vagabond]

With all the athlete abuse, high costs of hosting, political stupidity, cheating, and more frequent viruses, the days of the Olympics may be nearing an end. Sad.

Athlete abuse and cheating will continue with or without the Olympics. And what do you mean by "frequent viruses"?

 

[snoopyskater]

Athlete abuse and cheating will continue with or without the Olympics. And what do you mean by "frequent viruses"?

True, but I think it becomes more intensified at the biggest sports stage - Olympics. Viruses - SARS, Ebola, Mers, AIDs, etc. Probably will increase with population growth, deforestation, climate change, and easier travel around the world.

 

[Spikefan]

I just saw on MSNBC that the IOC will be offering vaccination to all Olympic athletes (I would assume those that qualify for the summer games).

edit: both summer and winter Olympians.

IOC reveals China has offered vaccines to Tokyo and Beijing Olympic athletes

The IOC president, Thomas Bach, says the Chinese Olympic Committee has offered vaccine doses for the Winter and Summer Games

www.google.com

 

[CantALoop]

Yeah, and then watch everyone who takes the Chinese vaccines test positive for WADA-banned substances on their next visit

 

[skipaway]

Japanese Olympic Official Quits over Really Offensive Plan

This is Naomi

He’s a big jerk.

 

[Karen-W]

Japanese Olympic Official Quits over Really Offensive Plan

This is Naomi

He’s a big jerk.

Yes, I read about this last night. Here is a different article about the incident with additional information: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/03/18/national/sasaki-olympics-gaffe/

At least his male staffers called him out at the time, even if it did take far too long for him to be replaced.

 

[Frau Muller]

Not sure if this is new news:

Tokyo Olympics Bans Spectators From Abroad Over COVID-19 Fears

Officials said the risk was too great to admit ticket holders from overseas during the coronavirus pandemic.

www.yahoo.com

Wasn’t the “no foreign spectators” thing announced weeks ago?

 

[Karen-W]

Not sure if this is new news:

Tokyo Olympics Bans Spectators From Abroad Over COVID-19 Fears

Officials said the risk was too great to admit ticket holders from overseas during the coronavirus pandemic.

www.yahoo.com

Wasn’t the “no foreign spectators” thing announced weeks ago?

The articles from a few weeks ago said that a final decision wouldn't be made until the IOC Board meeting later this month, so while it's been expected it wasn't officially done until now. Such a shame for the foreign athletes to not have family and friends able to attend. Hopefully many of them either competed in Rio or make it to Paris in 3 years.

 

[Vash01]

While I totally accept the decision of not having the overseas audience but still trying to organize the competition, I am still sad that I don't get the possibility to cheer to my favorites live.
But I hope they will go on with the Olys.

This is a good decision. Japan will have control over their own citizens. Easier to do. It will be a mess if they have to test every person that enters to watch the games in person. They are sacrificing a lot financially to make sure the Olympics will be safe. I still wish they had postponed them till 2022. Perhaps the decision was made by the IOC?

 

[Finnice]

It is still unclear if the individual coaches are allowed to go.

 

[CantALoop]

This is a good decision. Japan will have control over their own citizens. Easier to do. It will be a mess if they have to test every person that enters to watch the games in person. They are sacrificing a lot financially to make sure the Olympics will be safe.

Yup, with current Japanese politics and handling of the vaccinations and 'rona restrictions, even if Japan did allow foreign spectators, they would have a very limited amount of international spectators who are willing to spend the time and money needed for two whole weeks in quarantine just to watch one or two Olympic events.

Those restrictions are unlikely to be eased up before the Olympics, and Tokyo is a potential tinderbox for yet another wave of cases of the crud. Compared to most economically developed countries, Japan is late to the game with vaccination approvals (only Pfizer has been approved), and procuring and distributing vaccines has been slow.

Japan's hesitancy when it comes to vaccines is due to several incidents with adverse reactions to vaccines in its past and general cautious nature toward any drug/pharmaceutical developed out of country.

Those factors make it unlikely Japan will provide benefits to foreign travelers like reduced quarantine time for any potential "vaccine passports" in the near future.

 

[Vagabond]

With 100 days until the Tokyo Olympics, Japan has vaccinated less than 1% of its population. That's a problem | CNN

With 100 days to go until the Games, already postponed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, questions remain over how Tokyo can hold a massive sporting event and keep volunteers, athletes, officials -- and the Japanese public -- safe from Covid-19.

tinyurl.com

When 2020 Tokyo Olympics volunteers have in recent weeks asked officials how they'll be protected from [you know what], given the foreign athletes pouring into Japan for the event and the country's low vaccination rate, the answer has been simple.

They'll be given a small bottle of hand sanitizer and two masks each.

"They don't talk about vaccines, they don't even talk about us being tested," said German volunteer Barbara Holthus, who is director of Sophia University's German Institute for Japanese Studies, in Tokyo.

With 100 days to go until the Games, already postponed a year due to the [you know what], questions remain over how Tokyo can hold a massive sporting event and keep volunteers, athletes, officials -- and the Japanese public -- safe from [you know what]....

Beijing had offered to provide vaccines for all athletes in the 2020 Olympics but Tokyo turned down the offer, saying no Chinese-made options were yet authorized for use in Japan.

Tokyo, we have a problem.

 

[Sylvia]

2 Japanese skaters who ran in the torch relay about a week ago:

Miki Ando: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNXF9GsJuUn/

Takahiko Kozuka: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNUgF10nsaJ/ & https://www.instagram.com/p/CNU_-afHbNI/

 

[allezfred]

So did Kanako Murakami: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNTy6TFA4fT/

Not forgetting most importantly Midori Ito who ran in Nagano where in 1998 she lit the Olympic cauldron: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...s-tokyo-olympics-torch-relay---april-110.html

 

[clairecloutier]

Tokyo Olympics could be canceled because of CV19, Japan ruling party figure admits

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/japan-olympics-tokyo-coronavirus/2021/04/15/17856dd4-9da0-11eb-b2f5-7d2f0182750d_story.html

I really hope the Games are not canceled ....

 

[Sylvia]

I really hope the Games are not canceled ....

WaPo link doesn't work but here's an AP article link that works despite the "banned" word:

Officials say Olympic cancellation, no fans still an option

TOKYO (AP) — Two officials in Japan's ruling LDP party on Thursday said changes could be coming to the Tokyo Olympics.

apnews.com

Two officials in Japan’s ruling LDP party on Thursday said changes could be coming to the Tokyo Olympics. One suggested they still could be canceled, and the other said even if they proceed, it might be without any fans.
Toshihiro Nikai, the No. 2 and secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, mentioned the cancellation only a day after Tokyo reached the 100-days-to-go mark on Wednesday.
He made his comments in a show recorded by Japan’s TBS TV.
“If it seems impossible to go on with the games, they must be definitely canceled,” Nikai said. “If there is a surge in infections because of the Olympics, there will be no meaning to having the Olympics.”

Asked if a cancellation was still an option, Nikai said: “Of course.”
But he also added: “It is important for Japan to have a successful Olympics. It is a big opportunity. I want to make it a success. We will have many issues to resolve and prepare, and it is important to take care of them one by one.”
Prime Minister Toshihide Suga said in a statement there was “no change to the government position to do everything to achieve safe and secure Olympics.”

AP article by Stephen Wade: 100 Days: Tokyo Olympics marked by footnotes and asterisks

“The government is very conscious of how ‘the world’ views Japan,” Dr. Gill Steel, who teaches political science at Doshisha University in Kyoto, wrote in an email. “Canceling the Olympics would have been seen, at some level, as a public failure on the international stage.”
The price will be steep when the Olympics open on July 23.
The official cost is $15.4 billion. Olympic spending is tough to track, but several government audits suggest it might be twice that much, and all but $6.7 billion is public money.
The Switzerland-based IOC generates 91% of its income from selling broadcast rights and sponsorship. This amounts to at least $5 billion in a four-year cycle, but the revenue flow from networks like American-based NBC has been stalled by the postponement.

The IOC and Japanese politicians decided a year ago to postpone but not cancel the Olympics, driven by inertia and the clout of Japanese ad giant Dentsu Inc., which has lined up a record of $3.5 billion in local sponsorship — probably three times more than any previous Olympics.
“I think the government knows full well the Japanese public doesn’t want the Olympics as of now,” Dr. Aki Tonami, who teaches political science at the University of Tsukuba, wrote in an email to AP. “But no one wants to be the one to pull the plug.”
The Olympics may also determine the fate of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who replaced Shinzo Abe seven months ago. It was Abe who famously told IOC voters in 2013 that the Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011, was “under control.”
Despite being billed as the “Recovery Olympics,” the northeastern area of Japan is still hurting a decade later. Many blame the Olympics for the slow recovery and siphoning off resources.

 

[skatingguy]

Tokyo Olympics could be canceled because of CV19, Japan ruling party figure admits

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...856dd4-9da0-11eb-b2f5-7d2f0182750d_story.html

I really hope the Games are not canceled ....

I don't think this really means anything.

 

[Judy]

The Canadian Olympic team outfits were just publicly released. . Not good .

 

[Coco]

Someone posted a photo comparing the US outfits to the Canadian outfits. They described it as a 80s movie where the preppy kids camp is invaded by the plucky ragamuffins. I'm paraphrasing, twitter has been down, lol. But you get the point.

 

[marbri]

Someone posted a photo comparing the US outfits to the Canadian outfits. They described it as a 80s movie where the preppy kids camp is invaded by the plucky ragamuffins. I'm paraphrasing, twitter has been down, lol. But you get the point.

That has more or less been the case since US went Ralph Lauren and Canada lumberjack

 

[Judy]

Someone posted a photo comparing the US outfits to the Canadian outfits. They described it as a 80s movie where the preppy kids camp is invaded by the plucky ragamuffins. I'm paraphrasing, twitter has been down, lol. But you get the point.

Omg I don’t even want to post a link. It’s making Canada look like a confused country.

 

[marbri]

USA, Canada Join To Mock Their Respective Olympics Uniforms | The Mary Sue

The Tokyo Olympics teams have unveiled their closing ceremony uniforms, with USA and Canada mocking theirs on Twitter.

www.themarysue.com

It's all a bit of fun, some social media reactions in that link above .

 

[Karen-W]

O Canada, indeed. Not that the very preppy Ralph Lauren look is much better for the USA, but damn, Hudson Bay went all in on "let's continue contributing to the complicated Canadian inferiority complex."

 

[mjb52]

I swear to god that Canada on the arm of the jacket looks like it was written by Danny G in his "we didn't decide yet" font. I want a handwriting analysis stat.

I thought you guys were exaggerating, shame on me. The U.S. outfits are like something the villain in a John Hughes movie would wear.

 

[MacMadame]

Usually, people make fun of the outfits when they are announced but then they are fine during the actual Olympics when worn by real people and not models posing. I don't think that is going to happen with the Canadian ones though.

 

[marbri]

I don't mind the Canadian outfits. But as someone raised on John Hughes movies I'm not really into the US look

 

[MacMadame]

I don't mind the Canadian outfits. But as someone raised on John Hughes movies I'm not really into the US look

That's an example of something that will look fine on real people. The hair styles and poses are what give that Preppy Bullies vibe

 

[marbri]

That's an example of something that will look fine on real people. The hair styles and poses are what give that Preppy Bullies vibe

And the polo logo

 

[skateboy]

Here are Mexico's: https://www.adn40.mx/deportes/uniformes-mexico-tokio-2021-gm-especial