200 days to the opening ceremony in Tokyo – an encouraging snapshot

For the second time in a year, the world marks 200 days since the opening of the Olympics. It has not even changed its name for branding and advertising reasons, and is still called “Tokyo 2020”, as if someone wants a reminder of the terrible corona year in mid-2021. But the organizers themselves know that everything has changed.

200 days before the original date, headlines still reported that authorities in Wuhan had denied flu and other options, and that they were unable to decipher the identity of the mysterious virus that had begun circulating in the Chinese city. The rest of the world were completely indifferent, behaved as usual, and began to get excited for the huge sporting event. Remember? There used to be such a thing as a routine.

200 days before Tokyo 2021 (yet it’s hard not to call it that), all the Olympic Committee, athletes and fans want, is for the Games to get underway. Without unnecessary celebrations and declarations. In fact, instead of the round milestone generating global enthusiasm for the opening ceremony approaching, it may just be causing many to ask themselves, “What? Only 200 days? How the hell are we going to get over the corona by then, so that we can compete properly?”

The good news is that right now, the world is slowly getting vaccinated. Even before that, the organizers and the International Olympic Committee had not questioned the fact that the Olympics would take place, even if it was not yet clear what the required adjustments would be.

Even the torch race is set to resume. After the postponement of the games around the arrival of the torch to Japan last year, it was stored at the Olympic Museum in Tokyo (of course its flame was not extinguished), and from March 25 his journey will be renewed under the title: “Hope illuminates our path.” It is planned that it will pass through some of the hardest hit areas of the corona in Japan, as a symbol of the country’s recovery.

The bad news is that it’s very hard to see at the moment how we’ll get a classic Olympics, with crowded stands in the crowd and a carnival atmosphere in the streets. What is known in the meantime? lets start.

In terms of the epidemic, it seems that the real danger is not necessarily in attracting an audience, but in the opening of the crowded Olympic village, which is supposed to accommodate more than ten thousand people from the 206 participating countries. Usually, it is a lively and dynamic place with extensive interaction between the athletes, but this time the village is worryingly portrayed as a corona hatchery.

The Olympic Committee does not ignore this, and alongside a ban on outside critics, last month issued a detailed set of guidelines to all national committees. The goal: to reduce the number of people who are in the place, and create uniform procedures that everyone will follow and reduce the risk.

Among other things, the athlete will be asked to arrive at the Olympic Village five days before his competition, stay there for as few days as possible, and leave at most two days after the elimination or end of the competition; An athlete who goes to one of the small Olympic villages in the remote competition areas (to which the same procedures will apply) will be advised not to return to the main village, in order to reduce the chance of infection; And beyond that, Corona tests will be conducted regularly in the village, including for drivers who will drive the athletes to competitions.

However, there will be no vaccine requirement – neither for athletes, nor for coaches nor for members of the Olympic Committee. Anyone arriving in Japan will undergo a corona check before the flight and upon arrival in the country, but not beyond. Contrary to previous thoughts in the tennis world, for example, participation will not depend on the vaccine, and athletes will only be charged with the regular tests.

If an athlete or team member is found to be positive, he or she will be immediately transferred to solitary confinement in a motel or hospital, and an immediate investigation will begin to locate the people who were nearby and who will also be charged with solitary confinement. The schedule is completely closed, so it is not possible to postpone competitions or games in case any team, or several athletes from the same country or industry, are infected at the same time.

Back to the audience. The “virtual” athletics competitions held a few months ago emphasized the absurdity of holding such events without fans. At the Olympics, you owe it to the rolling thunder of excitement in the 100-meter dash, or as soon as we perform in the pool, you realize that a world record is about to be broken. Anyone who is involved in the Tokyo Games is clear – there must be an audience in the stands.

The Olympic Committee will formulate policy on the issue only at the end of winter, when the picture of the corona in the world will be clearer, but it is important to note that sporting events in Japan are already taking place with an audience. In the football league that ended two weeks ago, for example, there were games in which close to 30,000 fans were present in the stands. The same is true of the baseball league.

It seems that even if there will be problems in getting tourists to the games, the Japanese themselves will be able to encourage and create a warm atmosphere. How many will be allowed to enter the opening ceremony at the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium, will there be a distance between them, and will they be required to present proof that we have been vaccinated? The answers will only be received closer to summer.

In terms of costs, the organizers – who already deviated from the plans – had to suffer from additions. The delay in the year led to an additional $ 2.4 billion in spending, resulting in a huge total cost of $ 15.4 billion. The International Olympic Committee has been hit by a $ 650 million surplus that it will have to pay, a sum that will be drawn from the reserves the organization has accumulated over the years.

The Japanese economy was hit hard during the Corona crisis, which also affected some of the game’s sponsors. However, all the big sponsors continued, and some even paid more money to the organizers thanks to exposure for another year.

And there is also one aspect that did not go wrong. Japan is a wonderfully organized country, and all the facilities were ready eight months ago, long before the original opening date of the Games. They stand and wait for the athletes, and towards the summer there will be test competitions, to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Alex Giladi, a member of the Olympic Committee and deputy chairman of the Games’ coordination committee, is pleased with the pace of preparations: “Everything is going very efficiently, the coordination between the organizers, the administration of the Olympic Committee, the Tokyo Municipality and the Government of Japan.”

The Corona has turned us all into skeptics, and there are still those who believe there will be no Olympics.

“If an asteroid does not fall on Earth, or a catastrophe of this magnitude occurs, there is no reason why the games should not take place this summer. We are constantly being held under the corona, taking into account the corona.”