Tokyo Summer Olympic Games 2020 News

[Quaker2001 339]

1 hour ago, Orangehair43 said:

All true but countries are becoming stricter with borders - Israel has banned all flights for at least a week with as far as I can tell no exceptions for sportspeople travelling abroad to compete. The UK is bringing in hotel quarantine and while team sports flying on private jets to competitors in a bubble might manage to get an exemption i'm not sure individuals or small entourages flying commercial will. When you have the risk of the vaccine failing due to varients sport will be far down the list.

If the state of the world stays like this as we get closer to the summer, that'll be a big problem.  Travel restrictions will obviously be a huge problem, especially for smaller countries trying to get their athletes and officials to Tokyo.  And any event that requires a lot of travel will be in trouble.  Club leagues however will likely be able to continue (hopefully) without interruption.  They won't be as affected as all of them were last year.

[Quaker2001 339]

1 hour ago, OlympicsFan said:

1) It isn’t done/hasn’t been done until recently because then the IOC would make less money and in addition to that it would be more difficult to give the games to disctators. Also the hosts couldn’t show off how amazing they are, so it is also partly due to the vanity of political leaders.

Yes, that's the mindset of the IOC.  They want a city to spend a ton of money and then wine and dine the IOC members.  The notion that a city could use an Olympics as an urban renewal initiative doesn't work so well anymore because of the costs.  Like I said earlier, if the IOC wasn't so concerned about giving themselves a first class experience, maybe it would be easier to convince cities to bid

 

1 hour ago, OlympicsFan said:

2) I would like an outdoor pool with temporary stands (kind of like it is done for Beachvolleyball). The 2009 swimming world championships were great and swimming should be an outdoor sport (during the summer).

The last Olympics to have an outdoor swimming venue was Athens in 2004.  They were supposed to build a roof, but construction delays meant they had to scrap it.  The IOC and FINA were not happy.

 

Worth noting.. the LA 28 venue is outdoors.  But notable that the stadium built for 1984 (which was 1 of only 2 venues specifically built for those Olympics) is NOT the site this time.  Instead, that's going to be the warm-up pool so they can build the temporary structure next door at the baseball stadium (I still don't full understand how that's going to work)

 

1 hour ago, OlympicsFan said:

3) The host would pay the hotel owners. Say we have 10000 athletes and they stay on average 7 nights in a room that usually costs 100 €, then the total amount would be 7 million €. Obviously there will be all kinds of extra costs, but I don’t see how it would amount to 50 million € or more, which still would only be around 1/10th of the costs for the Olympic village in 2012. If countries can get private investors to build an Olympic village that is turned into affordable housing after the games, then that would also be a good option. Maybe it would be an option in general to get private investors to finance (some of) the venues and after the games they can do with them whatever they want. That might lead to a more effective approach and would take pressure away from the tax payers, who then might look more favorably at their city hosting the Olympics.

They need to guarantee can stay there from the Opening Ceremony through the Closing Ceremony (and probably at least a day or 2 on either day), so that's more like 21 nights.  Need to take care of officials and team support as well.  And yes, tons of extra costs to provide for them.  Plus given how much more accommodations normally go for during an Olympics, probably a lot more than €100 per room.

 

Either way, that's revenue coming from outsiders that is now being covered by the host committee.  Better off finding a way to provide housing that's not going to hurt local businesses because then what's in it for them for a city to host an Olympics?  Again, easier said than done for a city to construct a significant amount of housing and to make that work for both the Olympics and after the Olympics.  But if a city isn't up to that task or has an alternate plan (like Los Angeles using USC and UCLA dorms), then maybe they shouldn't be bidding for the Olympics in the first place

[Orangehair43 315]

8 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

If the state of the world stays like this as we get closer to the summer, that'll be a big problem.  Travel restrictions will obviously be a huge problem, especially for smaller countries trying to get their athletes and officials to Tokyo.  And any event that requires a lot of travel will be in trouble.  Club leagues however will likely be able to continue (hopefully) without interruption.  They won't be as affected as all of them were last year.

And the Paralympics is even more difficult because getting enough adapted rooms for  quarantines is going to be tough - especially post return to countries like Australia which will make all returns quarantine until well into 2022.  Some teams share care staff for those who need help but that is not going to be allowed this year.

[Vektor 3,326]

Reuters: Japan likely to hit COVID-19 herd immunity in October, months after Olympics

 

Quote

That would be a blow to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga who has pledged to have enough shots for the populace by the middle of 2021, as it trails most major economies in starting COVID-19 inoculations.

 

“Japan looks to be quite late in the game,” Rasmus Bech Hansen, the founder of British research firm Airfinity, told Reuters. “They’re dependent on importing many (vaccines) from the U.S. And at the moment, it doesn’t seem very likely they will get very large quantities of for instance, the Pfizer vaccine.”

 

Hansen said Japan will not reach a 75% inoculation rate, a benchmark for herd immunity, until around October, about two months after the close of the Summer Games.

 

Japan has arranged to buy 314 million doses from Pfizer, Moderna Inc and AstraZeneca Plc, and that would be more than enough for its population of 126 million.

 

But problems seen in vaccine rollouts elsewhere stir doubt that Japan will get those supplies on time.

Taro Kono, Japan’s vaccine programme chief, said last week it would begin its first shots in February, starting with 10,000 medical workers, but he walked back on a goal to secure enough vaccine supplies by June.

 

Japan is particularly vulnerable because its initial inoculation plan is dependent on Pfizer doses, which are at risk of being taken back by U.S. authorities to fight the pandemic there.

 

“There simply aren’t enough vaccines for all the countries that Pfizer made agreements with,” Hansen said.

“America needs 100 million more Pfizer vaccines to be on the safe side to reach their goals, and a lot of those 100 million would come from the Japan pile.”

 

Japan’s health ministry did not immediately respond with comment on Airfinity’s forecasts. Pfizer said in a statement it is working to boost capacity to meet global demand, aiming to make about 2 billion vaccine doses in 2021.

 

Pfizer is scaling up its Puurs, Belgium facility, which will result in a temporary impact on some shipments until mid-February. Meanwhile, the company is “working closely with all governments on allocation of doses.”

tldr: Japan is too dependent on Pfizer, and Pfizer will prioritize the US over Japan if needed. 

[Gianlu33 6,029]

According to the Italian media, Italy will compete under the IOC Flag.

 

Honestly, I think that this is a part of the political and Malagò farce. This is just a battle for the money and for the power.

[Vektor 3,326]

2 minutes ago, Gianlu33 said:

According to the Italian media, Italy will compete under the IOC Flag.

 

Honestly, I think that this is a part of the political and Malagò farce. This is just a battle for the money and for the power.

This will make things a bit confusing when Italy and Russia will play against each other in team sports. 

[Orangehair43 315]

Could this dispute see Italy losing or pulling out of 2026.

[Orangehair43 315]

The IOC must accept nations will withdraw if it even considers directly buying vaccines -  the global public will revolt and then NOC's will be under domestic to reject it and pull out

[hckošice 16,629]

14 minutes ago, Gianlu33 said:

According to the Italian media, Italy will compete under the IOC Flag.

 

Honestly, I think that this is a part of the political and Malagò farce. This is just a battle for the money and for the power.

if true, the only positive thing from this should be no more clapping during the anthem

[Dunadan 1,103]

14 minutes ago, Gianlu33 said:

According to the Italian media, Italy will compete under the IOC Flag.

 

Honestly, I think that this is a part of the political and Malagò farce. This is just a battle for the money and for the power.

which media do you read?