While the fate of the Olympic Games that are slated to take place this summer after their year-long postponement has never been in question with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), calls for their postponement, or even cancellation, have become louder as their start date draws closer. Now, at the IOC’s final Coordination Commission meeting, the Games status has been further confirmed, as well as the door being opened for the potential of spectators being allowed.
John Coates, a chair on the board representing Australia, asked Commission if, given the current state of emergency in the Tokyo area, the Games would be able to be safely held. In response, the IOC said:
“We’ve successfully seen five sports hold their test events during the state of emergency, all of them with the plans that we had in place to protect the safety and security of the athletes, and the people of Japan, based around the worst possible circumstances, so the answer is absolutely yes. The Coordination Commission was further encouraged by the many sporting events taking place successfully around the globe, noting that more than 54,000 athletes have competed in over 430 major sports events since September 2020, all held safely for participants and the local population.”
According to Coates, the lack of public support for the Games this summer is in direct correlation with low vaccination rates. As the number of people who are fully vaccinated continues to grow, he expects the support of the Games to grow as well.
Tokyo 2020 chief Seiko Hashimoto further pointed to precautions being put in place to support the Games going on as scheduled. According to Hashimoto, the reduced number of incoming people to the region, restrictions placed on what those attending may do, and a complete review of the medical system all will allow the Games to occur as scheduled.
In total, the number of officials and other staff for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games has been cut in half from the number that was initially expected. Of the initial 180,000 that was initially set to be present at the games, just under 80,000 will now be in attendance.
In a further change for initial plans, both Japanese government officials and the organizers of the Olympics and Paralympics are calling for allowing spectators to attend events in a limited capacity. With professional soccer and baseball games within Japan allowing limited numbers of fans to attend in person, the organizers of the Games are again reviewing the possibility of allowing limited attendance of spectators from within the country. Recently in Chiba, a region to the East of Tokyo, a baseball game was played before nearly 12,000 fans
Big Olympic partner support pullout…
https://www.nippon.com/en/news/reu20210526KCN2D700A/
IOC battling misguided Japanese xenophobia. Who wins?
Japan already has sporting events much larger and more dangerous taking place during the pandemic. Hakone Ekiden (a collegiate long distance running relay) was unchanged. It went off as normal in January. Millions of spectators lining the streets, 3-4 people deep in many spots… For miles and miles and miles. It was not altered in the slightest from a safety perspective. Crowds were completely unmonitored and uncontrolled, albeit that event is impossible to enforce logistically (and culturally).
The Olympics would be different because….. foreigners! I just watched a wtcs triathlon (triathlon olympians) in Yokohama on May 15th. Athletes couldn’t leave the hotel the entire week before and were only let out to recon… Read more »
Copy, paste, ramble much?
Something is working with only 14,000 dead . Possibly even ladees & gents there who’ve been nuked & still strolling around .
Yeah, what they do is not give hospitals extra funding for covid. Turns out if there ain’t money involved then they’re not gonna say all the flu and peumonia deaths are covid. Covid is and has been a complete straw man used for big pharma and big government to gain power. Death rates are normal, the vaccine is just money for big pharma, wearing the mask is just a way to remind you to be scared and that only the government can save you. Yes covid is very dangerous to old people, no it is not some crazy pandemic that should stop the entire world from doing things. Support the old folks and give them the vaccine. Let everyone else… Read more »
Change of subject- start lists are out for Aussie trials. Chalmers not doing 100 fly. Cody Simpson ranked 13th.
Other than Chalmers missing from the 100 fly I didn’t notice any other surprises.
lewis not competing
😮 You’re right. I wonder what’s happening with him? He hasn’t looked good at all this year.
Clyde Lewis? Lots of men to cover him, but that’d be hell of a kick in the balls for the Aussie 4×2. Hoping he’s okay.
And Cody Simpson the cover Boy for the trials on the poster…😄
I am most distressed by the HUGE backlash which has been permitted to occur in Japanese society. If they didn’t want the games during Covid-19, fair enuf! Just say so a year ago — but they did not. However, that was NOT the attitude of the Japanese. There has been a kind of schizophrenia where the public can say “NO” while the IOC/Japan say “YES”. That is not good for the Olympic spirit and the athletes.
There we’re actually a large percentage of people who didn’t want the Olympics pre-COVID-19…and you are correct the spirit of the Olympics has been dying a slow death for a few decades now.
No there weren’t. Ramble much? Stay with the spamming links. It’s all you’ve got..
This Olympics is a farce…so spam seems to be appropriate;-)
We’re gonna have to go with the Olympics on this one. Sorry
All 20% of you.
I’d take any article about the Japanese people’s opinion on the Olympics with a grain of salt. I’ve seen several articles based on surveys conducted by newspapers (like Yomiyuri Shinbun) whose readership tends to be very old. Not to say their opinions aren’t worth hearing, but they often aren’t representative of the entire populace.
Living in Tokyo, I certainly get the impression that the majority of those under 60 don’t mind if the Olympics happen. This is based off nothing more than what I see/hear in JP media and from friends/coworkers.
From the perspective of a fan I’m glad the games are going ahead but I can’t help but wonder what kind of damage the Olympic movement would sustain if things go wrong. At least the IOC already has Paris, LA and probably soon Brisbane locked in.
Given the sheer number of athletes combined with a host country determined to panic, something going wrong is a huge favorite. Just look at comparatively minor events like the recent curling world championships. They were held in a bubble in Calgary yet both the men’s and women’s events had positive tests leading to disruptions. Seemingly the key is to get through the first half of the Games, which would cover the swimming competition. If there’s a major negative story it can’t be in the early days. Once it’s beyond the midway point then there are enough positive memories to deflect, plus the finish line is in sight.
It’s gonna be a shit show if any of the big “stars” test positive and can’t compete in their events. I hope all the teams just keep to themselves throughout the competition and take as many precautions as possible.
It seems as though essentially all Olympians will have access to the vaccine.
The real fear now is that there will be a New York Yankees situation, where 10 vaccinated individuals test positive because of the rigorous testing after receiving J&J vaccines, and 9 of them never would have known they had it otherwise (because even when the vaccine isn’t totally effective at preventing infections, it’s still effective at preventing symptoms).
Given that people are going to let their guards down if they’ve been vaccinated (and from what we saw in the ISL, just in general the athletes are going to let their guards down), I think it’s highly likely that we see someone with a J&J vaccine test positive… Read more »
Not just the J&J vaccine, but all the vaccines don’t prevent covid. They just reduce the likelihood of getting it by a decent margin (not much more than already having it?, but they reduce severe cases by an even larger margin. It would seem very likely that several will get it though likely very mildly. I think swimming organizations should take an extra person if they can in each event, just as an alternate Olympian in case of positive cases.
Yup that would be a bad situation. Hopefully all the big stars are vaccinated. Should make it a requirement that all US Athletes, Coaches, Officials etc. going to Tokyo are fully vaccinated before they travel to Tokyo. Participating in the Olympics and representing the US is a privilege not a right.
Actually no participating in the Olympics and representing the US is a right for those who qualify, under the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act.
They can still test positive after vaccination.
Found the Russian bot