Quaker2001

Great performance by Dunklee and Doherty. Still can't believe they got on the podium!!

Maybe we'll get a close finish. Let's see if Bolshunov and Klaebo stay together til the end

First, Norway looks like they'll be well off the podium. Now they're running away with it. Someone needs to have a chat with the RSF ski techs.. that's crazy that Chervotkin looked so good and Yakimushkin gave up the lead on the first lap of his leg

That was devastating. Thought that Diggins would be able to hold her off and they'd finally get that world championship medal. Not to be, today

I see Giovanni already filled in the matchups, but the volleyball schedule has been finalized as well.. Match schedule - Men - Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Match schedule - Women - Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

15 km, last race of the week.. no surprise they're out of energy. That 20th shot will haunt Fak, he would have been on the podium if he hit it

It's a shame there's no crowd there for Fak, they'd be going crazy right now

Good job by the old guys.. Bunch of 30-somethings at the front of the field

Great tactics by Simon at the end there. Well deserved win over Eckhoff and Norway. Exciting race, that was fun to watch!

Well, maybe too many misses now

Laegreid 20/20 He's gonna win it

The Games will go on. Somehow, some way. They're too big and there are too many interests (both financial and political) to let them fail. It will undoubtedly look different than any other Olympics and likely won't be as festive as they normally would be. But I believe everyone involved will figure out a way to make it work, even if that's a somewhat reckless decision from the standpoint of a once in a century global pandemic.

"And we welcome you to the 2080 Virtuolympics where instead of lighting the cauldron, everyone will turn their phone's flashlight on to burn through the duration of your battery!"

12th place.. much improved over last year when the top finishing American in the sprint was outside the top 40. Definitely great to see

Official press release from NBC.. NBC OLYMPICS TO PROVIDE UNPRECEDENTED NETWORK COVERAGE OF TOKYO OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY Definitely a welcome change of pace. Love to see an entire day of Olympics coverage surrounding the Opening Ceremony rather than the usual "we're editing the whole thing for primetime." I'm not normally a morning person, but I'll certainly make an exception that morning!!

It's extremely odd. But that's the concession they chose to make to have the game on in primetime in North America. The other option would have been to play the men's bronze medal game the same day as the women's gold medal game, but I guess they didn't like that one as much.

It's not. phelps beat me to it, but clearly it's for the benefit of American television to schedule it that way (maybe not an explicit request by NBC so much as FIBA knowing where their bread is buttered)

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 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) 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

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.

If it was so easy, why isn't it being done already? Your last point rings true. If the IOC were more responsible, they'd choose the more sensible and sustainable bid rather than the ones making lavish promises, but having no legacy plan. But that would require the IOC to put the needs of host cities ahead of their own wants and desires. Good luck getting that to happen. So yes, the question is how to balance the needs of a large capacity arena for competitions and use the rest of the time? Any city could use a community swimming pool, but how do they balance that need with having a full-sized venue to host competitions? A swimming venue can be used for other things. Or they put a pool at an existing venue that already has the capacity. If it is planned in advance, it can be successfully pulled off. As for the hotels, the issue isn't just capacity. You can't trust the athletes as if they were tourists. Not only do you need beds for them, but they need dining, transportation, security, medical services, etc. Most hotels can't provide that. And even if they could, who is covering it at all? If I'm a hotel operator, I want my rooms filled by paying customers, not giving them away free to athletes and then having to take care of them. If that's the arrangement, then why would a city want to bid for the Olympics if their tourism business is going to be marginalized by the IOC needing their resources?

No it won't. Most of the sports world was completely shut down for a good part of 2020. That won't be the case in 2021. Some large scale events like the Olympics might be in trouble, but we're slowly learning to co-exist with this virus and hopefully continue to manage to fight against it in ways we couldn't in 2020 other than to shelter in place and close everything down.

No he didn't. Not even close. Yes, that's all Kroenke's money that built the stadium there, but he did that for him and his football team. That the LA Olympic bid benefits from it is their good fortune, not Kroenke's desire to benefit them. LA's bid still would have been a no brainer if it was centered around the Coliseum (which already had plans for a $270 million renovation, again privately funded). If SoFi hadn't been built, LA still would have the 2028 Olympics right now. How would it have been different? Los Angeles is in a very advantageous position that they can rely largely on private funding and a lot of the infrastructure projects going on in Southern California aren't tied to the Olympics. They can do things almost no other city or country can do. I don't know what we'll see in 2032 and beyond. Doha is anything but a no-brainer, especially if the World Cup doesn't go so well (and it's a lot more infrastructure they'll need to pull that off than the World Cup). Being able to afford an Olympics isn't just about having tons of cash on hand but having a plan in place that can be properly executed. And the IOC needs to recognize that rather than pushing the "first ever Olympics in South America" agenda. This is on them to entice more cities and work with them. To do that, they need to be a less shitty organization. Not sure I believe they have that capability though

My point is that your concept is going to do very little to reduce costs. The reason why fewer countries want to host the Olympics isn't just about how much they cost but also they don't want to work with the IOC anymore. That has been a problem for awhile now and this mess with Tokyo is certainly going to make potential future hosts question whether or not to bid for an Olympics. The Olympic village is usually a major project for even a big city. You can't just use hotels or student apartments and think that's sufficient. If it was that easy, then why is Los Angeles the only city to have done that? You need housing for 11,000 athletes, all the coaches/officials/support staff, and then all of the media attending the games. All of that needs to be taken care of before anything is made available for spectators. The village that Tokyo built will be converted into housing after the Olympics (which is why the Games can't be postponed indefinitely), and then if Tokyo wants to host another Olympics in 40 or 60 years, they'll need to do so from scratch. The stadium doesn't have to be a major expense. Paris is using an existing stadium. Los Angeles is using an existing stadium (although it's costing $300 million in renovations to make it ready for the Olympics). Tokyo could have, but they chose not to. They decided they would be better off building a new stadium. You mentioned Berlin earlier as an example.. they completely renovated their stadium at the cost of €297 million. That's still a costly project. And hosting ceremonies in the city? How would that even work? Intersting that you mention cycling.. Rio built a velodrome for the 2007 Pan Am games. UCI then determined it was not suitable for the Olympics and insisted Rio build a new one. Yes, that's a perfect example of a situation that should not happen. But again, this is the IOC you're dealing with, an organization that nearly took wrestling out of the Olympics in favor of modern penathlon for political purposes. Milan had the right idea for 2026 by using existing facilities and spreading them over the country so they don't have to build new ones. On the Winter side, I think we'll be seeing more repeat hosts in the future since only a few locations have what is required without building new facilities. But again, that's where legacy plans are important. There's nothing wrong with building new facilities, but only if there's a plan to use them after the Olympics. Some cities and countries do that better than others. And the IOC needs to rely more on places that have existing venues or at least the ones who have more solid plans of how those venues will be used after the Olympics.

London had two Olympics 64 years ago. Tokyo was 56 (now 57) years ago. Los Angeles was 44 years. So there's already a handful of cities that have the Olympics come around to them after awhile. But like NearPup said, you're talking about a 40-60 year rotation. That's not always feasible. And the key venue that always is difficult to account for is the athletes' village. That's not something cities have on hand ready to go. And even the biggest cities - I say this as a life-long New Yorker - don't have all the required venues and wouldn't necessarily need certain ones. It's an interesting idea to toss around about having some sort of rotation of cities, but even with the IOC's insistence on having world class venues for the Olympics, it's probably not as smart an idea in practice as it might sound.

Japan doesn't deserve the burden of spending the money to wait another 11 years to host the Olympics. If they can't host this year (or maybe next year, but that seems difficult at this point), then that's it. Can't keep pushing it back indefinitely. That's why they're so focused on this year.