Tokyo 2020 Olympics

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics Feb 22, 2020 18:19:37 GMT

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Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2020 18:19:37 GMT

Tokyo governor Yurilo Koike has labelled claims London would be ready to host the 2020 Olympics if necessary as “inappropriate”.

While a number of sporting events having been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak, Japan has been determined to get this year’s Olympic Games on.

Earlier this week, the Conservative Party’s London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey exclusively told City A.M. that London would be “ready to host the biggest sporting celebration again, if we are called on in an hour of need”.

A spokesman for mayor Sadiq Khan also told City A.M. the capital would be ready “to step up to the plate” if required.

“Given the ongoing disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak, I urge the Olympic Committee to seriously consider how London could stand ready to host the Olympics should the need arise,” Bailey told City A.M.

“We have the infrastructure and the experience, and if I am elected I will make sure London is ready to host the biggest sporting celebration again, if we are called on in an hour of need.”

A spokesman for Mayor Sadiq Khan added: “Everyone is working towards what will be a fantastic Tokyo Games. In the unlikely event that it be required, London, as it has done throughout history, will do its best to step up to the plate.”

But the noise coming out of London has provoked a response from Tokyo as they prepare to host their first Olympics since 1964 and just second ever.

Koike labelled Bailey’s suggestion “inappropriate” because there is currently no suggestion that the Olympics will need to be relocated.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics Feb 23, 2020 5:58:00 GMT

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Post by Admin on Feb 23, 2020 5:58:00 GMT

Olympic organisers have dropped a dance by Japan's indigenous Ainu people from the opening ceremony of this year's Games in Tokyo, a representative of the group said on Friday.

"Ainu dancers will not be included in the opening ceremony in Tokyo," said Kazuaki Kaizawa, an official at the Hokkaido Ainu Association in Sapporo.

They were told there wasn't room to fit the dance into the July 24 performance, Kaizawa told Reuters. "We had been preparing and it is a disappointment, but we hope there will still be a chance for us to show Ainu culture elsewhere."

Officials at the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ainu people, whose dwindling numbers are concentrated in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's main islands, have recently been getting more official attention from a state that had once colonised them.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is building a modernist "Symbolic Space for Ethnic Harmony" in Hokkaido, but some Ainu worry the new museum complex is mostly meant to burnish Japan's international standing ahead of the Olympics.

A 2017 survey counted just over 13,000 Ainu in Hokkaido. The actual number is estimated to be much higher, because many Ainu fear identifying as other than Japanese and have moved to different parts of the country.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics Feb 24, 2020 18:19:02 GMT

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Post by Admin on Feb 24, 2020 18:19:02 GMT

WILL THE TOKYO OLYMPICS BE CANCELED OR POSTPONED?

The IOC, local organizers, the Tokyo city government and everyone involved is saying “no.” That includes Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. However, a respected Japanese virologist said last week the Games would have to be postponed or canceled if they opened tomorrow.

“I'm not sure of the situation at the end of July,” Dr Hitoshi Oshitani said. He said it would be “difficult to have the Olympics (now).” Other scientists have said they can not forecast what the situation will be in five months.

ARE OTHER EVENTS LINKED TO THE OLYMPICS BEING CANCELED OR POSTPONED?

Yes. And the list is growing. Tokyo organizers announced very late on Friday night that training for 80,000 unpaid volunteers was being delayed until May or later. Some volunteers come from abroad. Organizers acknowledge they cannot run the Games without them. Organizers week also announced that a small test event in Tokyo Feb 28-March 1 would be limited to only Japanese. The test is for Paralympic boccia and was to involve non-Japanese athletes.

Two upcoming test events — wheelchair rugby on March 12-15 and gymnastics on April 4-6 — are to have international fields. Tokyo spokesman Masa Takaya said he could not guarantee that non-Japanese would take part.

Dozens of sports events outside Japan are affected. Some Olympic qualifiers are being moved or postponed, which complicates life for athletes, sports federations, national Olympic bodies, and border officials who have to deal with health issues.

WILL THE OLYMPICS BE MOVED TO ANOTHER COUNTRY?

Shaun Bailey, a Conservative Party candidate for London mayor, made that suggestion last week. It sounded like a political stunt. Some in London also wanted the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics moved to the British capital because of the Zika virus. The Games went ahead and the mosquito-borne virus subsided.

Tokyo Gov Yurkio Koike said it was “inappropriate” to make a serious issue like the virus a talking point for London's mayoral race. London held the Summer Games in 2012.

WHAT ABOUT THE TORCH RELAY?

So far it is on. The relay starts on March 26 in Fukushima Prefecture in northeastern Japan and will circulate around the country for several months. It will involve mostly Japanese carrying the torch, but certainly non-Japanese will be involved. Any change to planning would be a worrying sign.

HOW MUCH MONEY IS INVOLVED?

Local Japanese companies have paid over $3 billion for sponsorship deals to local organizers, a record amount that is at least twice any previous Olympics. Local organizers say they are spending about $13 billion to organize the Olympics, although a national audit report puts the cost at twice that much.

U.S. television network NBC pays about $1 billion for the broadcast rights to the Olympics. The July 24-Aug 9 Tokyo Olympic slot is mostly determined by television. Moving the Olympics back a few months — when the weather is cooler in Tokyo — would seem impossible with the sports broadcast calendar filled with American football, college football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey. The European soccer schedule is also packed beginning in fall.

Almost three-quarters of the income for the International Olympic Committee — $5.7 billion in a four-year cycle — is from broadcast rights.

Any change would cause massive disruptions to the 11,000 Olympic athletes and another 5,000 Paralympic athletes — and their staffs, families and coaches. Tokyo hotels are booked solid during the Olympics — not to mention flights — with 7.8 million tickets available for the Olympics, and 2.3 million for the Paralympics.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics Feb 27, 2020 19:54:01 GMT

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Post by Admin on Feb 27, 2020 19:54:01 GMT

The World Health Organization said Thursday it is advising the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics and that no decision has been made to cancel the major sporting event in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

“To my understanding, no decision has or will be taken in the near term regarding the future of the Olympics,” Dr. Mike Ryan, the head of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said on a call with reporters. He said that WHO is working “extremely closely” with event organizers and is providing them with risk assessment and management advice.

He added that other mass gatherings, including the Olympics and the Special Olympics, proceeded during the outbreaks of Zika and SARS. “If you cast your mind back to those events, many of those events went ahead with appropriate risk management,” he said.

The remarks came after International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach told Japanese media that the IOC is “fully committed” to holding the Olympics on schedule. The games are scheduled to start July 24 and run through Aug. 9.

But earlier this week, Dick Pound, a senior member of the committee and a former Canadian swimming champion, said that if it proves too dangerous to hold the Olympics this summer due to the coronavirus outbreak, organizers are more likely to cancel it altogether than to postpone or move it.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics Mar 11, 2020 20:39:12 GMT

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Post by Admin on Mar 11, 2020 20:39:12 GMT

The Olympics is facing a two-year postponement because of the coronavirus threat, says a member of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee.

Officials from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Tokyo 2020 have so far insisted that the Games will go ahead as planned in July and August, with some suggestions that the event could continue without fans.

However, Haruyuki Takahashi – who is one of 25 members of the Organising Committee's executive board – says alternative plans must be taken "seriously" and that postponing the Games is more likely than cancellation because of the financial ramifications for the IOC.

"We'll have to start talking about this seriously from April. I don't think the Games could be cancelled, it'd be a delay," Takahashi told the Wall Street Journal.

"The International Olympic Committee would be in trouble if there's a cancellation. American TV rights alone provide them with a huge amount."

A postponement to 2022 would mean major clashes with sports leagues like the NFL and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in July and August 2022.

Takahashi also said having the Games without spectators would not be realistic because of the loss of revenue from tickets and other sales.

Last week, Japanese Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto said delaying the event due to the coronavirus threat is being considered, but only until the end of the year.