rafalgorka

Watch from 3:45. Just amazing 
 
 

It is very easy to reduce costs. Either you build less expansive venues or you reuse venues. Building less expansive venues usually means less capacities which means less ticket revenue and less chances for the local population to watch, so this isn’t really a good option. This means that the best option would be to reuse venues. In this day and age it is impossible to build a swimming stadium or a ski jumping hill and to get back the costs later by constantly hosting competitions there. This means that only cities that already have most of the venues should host the Olympics. In most cases those will be cities that hosted the games before. I also refuse to believe that the major cities I named earlier wouldn’t be able to open up 10-15k hotel beds for athletes if they know about it multiple years in advance, especially with more and more tourists choosing Airbnb over hotels. Of course this wouldn’t work for places like Sochi, which means that those places shouldn’t host the Olympics. Maybe the IOC could set a budget for all the possible hosts (say 1-2 billion dollars) or they could favor the bids with the most efficient budget, kind of how it is often done with construction projects.

It's so sad to see that you can only complain and that you doesn't want post anything positive anywhere.

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?

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.
 
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).
 
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.

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

ita been a very long time since we have seen an indian pair in the semis of bwf 1000 events .....so hats off to them and the way the XD XD caught was awesome

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.

21.01.24 early version: day-2 - day2
21.01.24 TOKYO 2020 QUALI.doc

Hello,
This is my "possible start lists" data.
It is very early draft ofc.
 
I don;t have time to make more explenations right now, because it is quite a busy weekend for me.
Only one thing - events are made in calendar order. First those which start at day -2, then day -1, then day 0, then day 1 etc,
Q means someone who qualified,
q is my prediction
 
Have a good day, everyone
21.01.16 TOKYO 2020 QUALI.doc

Interesting article by The Ringer:
https://www.theringer.com/2021/1/22/22244941/tokyo-summer-olympics-status-thomas-bach-ioc
 
I always thought that it might make sense to rotate the Olympics between maybe 10 to 15 cities.

Summer: Moscow, Barcelona/Madrid, Rome, Paris, London, Berlin, Toronto, Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam, Sydney

Winter: Munich, Milan, Innsbruck/Salzburg, Oslo/Lillehammer, Stockholm, Helsinki, Lake Placid/Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Nagano/Sapporo, Albertville, St. Moritz/Lausanne

I thought about it too, that’s a good point 

Quota Natation Officiel.odt

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, Swimming Canada has invoked the unexpected circumstances clause of its Olympic team nomination criteria, and is postponing the Olympic and Paralympic Swimming Trials until late May. Swimming Canada will also plan a supplementary Olympic qualifying opportunity in June.
The clause allows the Swimming Canada Selection Committee to determine if unexpected or unusual circumstances have arisen during the process of applying these Criteria and have the full and absolute discretion to resolve the matter as it sees fit, taking into account factors and circumstances that it deems relevant. Any such exercise of discretion shall be subject to the Canadian administrative law principles of fairness.
 
The following swimmers have been provisionally nominated by Swimming Canada’s Selection Committee for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, for the following specific individual events:
 
Kylie Masse (Lasalle, Ontario), 100m and 200m backstroke
Margaret Mac Neil (London, Ontario), 100m butterfly
Penny Oleksiak (Toronto, Ontario), 200m freestyle
Sydney Pickrem (Halifax, Nova Scotia), 200m breaststroke, 200m and 400m individual medley
Taylor Ruck (Kelowna, British Columbia), 100m freestyle
Markus Thormeyer (Delta, British Columbia), 200m backstroke
 
More: https://www.swimming.ca/en/news/2021/01/22/six-swimmers-provisionally-nominated-to-represent-team-canada-at-tokyo-2020/
 
 

'i am agree' 
 
??? 
 
So you agree or not? ? 

Situation worsens every day and policies update every day. It's very likely to be the first Chinese new year I spend in Beijing without family members due to the potential enlarging total lockdown.
 
 
 

https://www.britishswimming.org/news/latest-swimming-news/team-gb-names-first-four-swimmers-tokyo-olympic-games/

you have to tune in at game time to see if it works or not...
 
right now they're showing some Football, so it's quite obvious that's geoblocked...
 
Waterpolo could be free, just check at 6 p.m. 

@heywoodu and everybody interested...
 
Italy vs Netherlands, live today at 6 p.m. CET (it should work also outside Italy, in any case a basic free proxy like Hola should do the job if it's not completely free in your Country)...
 
https://www.raiplay.it/dirette/raisportpiuhd

Hello @Makedonas great that you joined is here.
 
What are your biggest medal hopes for Tokyo from Greek perspective? 
 
Have a good day 

Sorry but this is not true. Greece didn't select the flag bearer yet, though Anna is one of the top prospects for that position along with Stefanidi and Petrounias.
 
There are also some rumors about Tsitsipas and Antetokounmpo but I don't think they deserve it since they never played at the Olympics before and the others already won gold medals.

for synchronized swimming, greece and france are neck and neck to win the last quota! I hope it will be France ^^^, in basketball the only country that is dangerous in your group is Canada

Really unfair that South Africa automatically gets in. I also think it's unfair for China and Australia too, even though they are at least decent teams. Canada are somewhat decent as well, but I disagree with this whole qualification process 
 
Greece and the Netherlands both missed out in 2012 and 2016. The Dutch hosted in 2016 but still couldn't make it. I really hope Greece can make it this year but I know it will be tough.
 
I must say that if anyone is trying to decide who to support here, I believe us Greeks really deserve some support.
 
2009-2012 we had an incredible cycle. 4th at 2009 World Championships, silver at 2010 European Championships, gold at 2011 World Championships, and silver at 2012 European Championships. Also won World League bronze in 2010 and 2012. Sadly, the World Championships did not offer Olympic quota places back then, and our entire qualification was decided on one match against Spain. We lost, and Spain went on to win silver in London. Really unlucky for us.
 
2013-16 we did okay. Didn't win any medals but finished 5th or 6th at every World/Euro Champs during that cycle. Once again, our Olympic hopes were decided on one match. This time against Russia, and we led 9-7 in the fourth period and then 10-9 but conceded with four seconds left and then lost on penalties. Russia went on to win bronze at the Rio Olympics.
 
2017-20...well we had some good results (second in 2018 European Championships and won the 2018 Europa Cup), but 2019 and 2020 were not so good for us, 8th at 2019 World Championships and 6th at 2020 European Championships. After those disappointing results, we got a new coach and our best player Alexandra Asimaki (former FINA World player of the year) announced her return to the national team. Sadly, coronavirus changed some plans and she decided to finish her career. We also lost another great player in Alkisti Avramidou, who never made it to the Olympics in her incredible career. Other great players we had who never made it to the Olympics include Eleni Kouvdou and Triantafyllia Manolioudaki, they both stopped after 2016. People who follow water polo know these names very well.
 
I do hope that with this new coach we can surprise people here and manage to qualify for Tokyo. I know it will be really tough but a lot of our girls have experience playing for Olympiakos (one of the best clubs in Europe) despite our average age being just 22 and we only have one player over 26. These young girls have achieved a lot and won the European U19 and U17 championships and medals at the World U20 and U18 championships. If they don't make it to Tokyo, I hope they can keep improving and make it to Paris 2024. Also doesn't help that our best young player Stefania Charalampidi decided to play for USA (she moved there when she was 17) even though she was born and raised in Greece...
 
Anyways I just wanted to let people know more about our team. I don't want to make it seem like I am complaining but I think it would be a really nice story if our girls can finally get back to the Olympics for the first time since 2008. This team has been through a lot. I'm confident our men's team will qualify again, but our women need this. An elite team should not be excluded from the Olympics three times in a row.

I agree. I am really hoping to see our women make it but we need a lot of luck. I think I would be less angry if we made it in 2012, that was when we were really robbed. We are not as good as we were back then and we only have two of the same players. My only hope is that our new coach somehow transforms this team. There should be 12 teams instead of 10. I thought expanding it from 8 to 10 would increase our chances, but instead they just went to Canada and South Africa 
 
I am confident the men will make it but not sure about basketball, we always have great players in NBA and Euroleague but choke in Olympic qualifying and always have a lot of injuries during Olympic years. I think our women's artistic swimming team has a good chance to make it but they won't win a medal. Sorry for making it off topic.

Iga Świątek and Łukasz Kubot will join forces to play Mixed doubles in AO. A rehearsal before the two playing together in Tokyo Olympics.