Summer Olympics 2021

[faranglaw]

My new favorite!  Yuto is so Cuto!  😁

[xpaulo]

On 7/24/2021 at 8:50 PM, TotallyOz said:

I enjoyed the opening ceremony this year. I think Japan did an excellent job and I thought the performances were beautiful. Is anyone watching them this year?

The ratings are pretty good in Canada, I think in part people are just looking for inspirational type stories.

[PeterRS]

On my hobby horse (sic) again. In addition to all the events involving horses, there are others whose inclusion in future Games I would like to see ended. We live in an era when the whole idea of sport is changing quite rapidly with young people leading that change. A couple of decades or so ago, who would have thought that skateboarding, surfing, karate and the incredibly difficult (and gripping to watch) sport climbing would be included in the Olympics? What new sports will emerge in the next few years. 

Many of the traditional sports were introduced a century or so ago, I assume because they harked back to the olden days in Greece. Why do we still have a javelin throwing competition? Who throws javelins today? Same with shot putting. It seems to me near pointless. Then there are more modern sports introduced because someone or some group had too much influence. How many countries in the world play baseball. Dozens, but only six compete in the Olympics. Why not more? At least that will be one sport not featured in Paris.

A lot of athletes now earn a lot of cash as a result of their excellence in their sport and from winning medals. I have no issue with that. But why are the top professional golfers and professional tennis players, many of whom make tens of millions in their normal careers, be permitted to play in the Olympics? Surely it would be far better to restrict the participants to genuine amateurs. i'm fed up with he likes of Novak Djokovic, a player estimated to be worth US$220 million, have hissy fits on the tennis court because he was not good enough to take home even a bronze medal. He and his like should be forced to stick to the professional tennis grounds of the world. 

Lastly, in Paris the surfing competition cannot be held in the city because it is not on the sea. So, Instead of locating it off Biarritz or Marseilles, or even seek to move it to Portugal where the waves at Nazare are some of the finest in the world, what will the organisers do? Locate it 16,000 kms away in Tahiti! So what happens to the concept of an Olympics village where all the athletes of the world congregate and socialise? Zero sense.  

Once they have got rid of some traditional events, the whole idea of host cities must surely be the next on the agenda. If a city cannot accommodate all the events, why should it be a host?

[captainmick]

The skill involved in dressage and show jumping is enormous.  I’m not into either sport but the highlights I saw of the dressage in particular were amazing.  For sportsmen and women in this field, the olympics is so important and it would a great shame if they were dropped.  Moving horses internationally is not that difficult and is a necessity of international competition including horse racing.  The bicyclists need to take their bicycles, the sailors their dinghies, the rowers their boats and the equestrians need their horses.  I’m in favour of javelin and shot put too.  Quite a skill to see how far things can be thrown.  Great to see new records being broken for fastest sprint, highest and longest jump, furthest throw etc. These simple sports are at the very heart of the Olympics.

[spoon]

If we were to only include sports that make sense these days, really, what sports will survive? I guess shooting will, but archery wont. Running and walking will, high jump and pole vault wont. Football is just 20 guys chasing one ball, and 2 guys guarding the post, fencing is really medieval, and i could go on and on. 

I agree that sports that did not have majority of the countries playing them should not be in the olympic. The olympic spirits is to bring people together, so sports like baseball with only 6 countries participating is weird to say the least. A quick google says at least 18 nations have taken part throughout the few times it has been in the olympic. Still a low number. 

One sports that malaysian has been hoping to be featured was squash, of course for a simple reason that we have a great team here lol. 

[PeterRS]

3 hours ago, captainmick said:

The skill involved in dressage and show jumping is enormous.  I’m not into either sport but the highlights I saw of the dressage in particular were amazing.  For sportsmen and women in this field, the olympics is so important and it would a great shame if they were dropped.  Moving horses internationally is not that difficult and is a necessity of international competition including horse racing.  The bicyclists need to take their bicycles, the sailors their dinghies, the rowers their boats and the equestrians need their horses.  I’m in favour of javelin and shot put too.  Quite a skill to see how far things can be thrown.  Great to see new records being broken for fastest sprint, highest and longest jump, furthest throw etc. These simple sports are at the very heart of the Olympics.

Naturally sailors, rowers, skateboarders, javelin throwers and their ilk require equipment. But with all respect they are individuals with a piece of equipment necessary for their sport. If you take your argument to its logical conclusion, soccer would be out as it requires a ball!

I suppose it's all down to individual preference. You like dressage. I loathe it. I hate to think how much training a horse requires to go through that routine. And you cannot name me any other sport - sport(?) - that requires a non human to compete! It makes no sense. If you have horses, why not camel racing? Why not sled dog racing? Why not rodeo riding? Having horses involved happens only because their events were one of the first to be included in the early Olympics when the organisers were desperate to find any sports at all? I believe one criterion should definitely be popularity of a sport. My nieces are both horse crazy. Oddly they have no interest in the Olympic equestrian events! 

Incidentally equestrian events were not included in the Melbourne 1956 Olympics due to Australia's strict 6-month quarantine policy. So it is not as though they have always been part of the programme. 

So I am curious. Given that some sports are kicked out at every Olympics, which ones would you drop out for Paris and Los Angeles?

[reader]

I doubt there are many purely amateur athletes participating in the Olympics at this point. Taking part on that level requires--for most events--full time training and competition during the off years that has to be paid for some way. I have no problem with those athletes being supported in order to provide fans with the best of the best every four years.

The biggest hurdle the Olympics face in the future will be the skyrocketing costs of staging them. It was recently announced that Brisbane was the lone bidder to "win" the 2032 slot.

The addition of skateboarding has been good for viewership. I think the more sports the better. The water, track and field and gymnastics may be the most headlined events, but the Olympics as a whole provide a welcomed break when there's so much lousy news out there.

4 hours ago, spoon said:

The olympic spirits is to bring people together, so sports like baseball with only 6 countries participating is weird to say the least. A quick google says at least 18 nations have taken part throughout the few times it has been in the olympic. Still a low number. 

One sports that malaysian has been hoping to be featured was squash, of course for a simple reason that we have a great team here lol. 

I hope you get your wish for squash getting included in the future. But have a little mercy for the beloved baseball teams from Malaysia. 🙂

[fedssocr]

what always amazes me is how many different weight classes sports like judo have. They seem to award dozens and dozens of medals in that one.

I've always felt like, "the more the merrier" is probably fine. If the host has the facilities and there are people who are top class athletes looking to compete, why not? 

The trend seems to be that it's more and more difficult to find places willing to waste all of the money necessary to host. That will be the IOC's biggest problem in the future.

[PeterRS]

1 hour ago, fedssocr said:

The trend seems to be that it's more and more difficult to find places willing to waste all of the money necessary to host. That will be the IOC's biggest problem in the future.

That trend was started by Montreal which I believe took more than 30 years to pay off its Olympics bill which had ballooned to 13 times its original estimate. As an article in The Guardian pointed out five years ago, "No other Olympics has so thoroughly broken a city." Yet Athens in 2004 came close and many of the stadia built for the Olympics were soon decaying. They were just not needed. As with every Games, the International Olympic Committee came out with a profit not far short of US$1 billion. Athens ended up with debts of $350 million in addition to its decaying stadia.

Increasing the number of sports which require the construction of additional facilities has worked in the past. For Tokyo in 1964 they were a means of renewing Japan's image as a member of the world community following World War 2. Seoul in 1988 was to mark the end of martial law and the start of a democratic country (although that did not really start till 1992). Beijing in 2008 was to put a kinder, gentler face on to a dictatorship with funds no object. 

Now though, the cost of hosting the Games means that far fewer cities are prepared to bid. It's not only the number of different venues, the number of personnel and accommodating them is also a huge problem. The swimming venue accommodates all the swimming and diving events. They can then become of value to the community. If a city has no stadium, then the example started in Sydney is one possibility. A 60,000 seat stadium for the Games which is then reduced in size to 40,000 to become more suitable for soccer or other regular sports. Facilities for judo, karate, boxing and other smaller scale sports are probably easy to build if they do not already exist. But I stick to my original point that building new facilities including an arena and allied requirements for equestrian events should not in future be required for an Olympic Games.

Like Topsy, the scope of the Games has steadily increased from 17 sports with 23 different disciplines in Rome in 1960 to 33 and 46 respectively for Tokyo 2020. 83 countries were represented in Rome; 205 in Tokyo (odd, since there are only 193 officially recognised countries in the world!) Rome had 150 medal events; Tokyo 339. Such continued expansion surely cannot continue. Either the IOC locates the Games  in one city which becomes the Olympics venue at least for several Games, or we will find that only cities in authoritarian countries will end up being prepared to pay for them.

[fedssocr]

a single location makes the most sense, but that would limit the amount of graft the IOC can engage in - so it's probably a non-starter

[PeterRS]

13 hours ago, reader said:

I doubt there are many purely amateur athletes participating in the Olympics at this point. Taking part on that level requires--for most events--full time training and competition during the off years that has to be paid for some way. I have no problem with those athletes being supported in order to provide fans with the best of the best every four years.

I should not have used the term 'amateur' as it does connote someone who is not paid. As @reader rightly points out, many sportsmen and women receive cash from sponsors and governments. The term 'professional athletes' who make their full-time careers from their sports might have be enmore appropriate. The Dvokovics, McIlroys, Morikawas, the US and some other countries' baseball and basketball players are multi-millionaires many times over. I do not believe the Olympic ideal was that they should be the ones competing for medals. Cassius Clay was an amateur when he won the boxing gold before turning professional and changing his name to Muhammad Ali and becoming arguably the greatest boxer of all time. How many other non-professional golf, tennis and other athletes could use the Olympics as a springboard to international success? After all, even the golf majors have some amateur athletes playing alonside all the professionals.

That beef apart, though, @fedssocr brings up the very pertinent issue of graft. It has been the blight of the mega international sports events for many decades. The IOC and FIFA which controls the Soccer World Cup have been the worst. The top officials, like the dreadful Sepp Blatter who was fired from FIFA and is the subject of legal proceedings, usually seem to get away with lining their pockets and it is their Committee members and Country heads who end up kicked out or in jail. Surely if the rotation of cities was every 12 years, say, rather than every 4, this could reduce the possibilities of corruption? The ease and cost of travel to the locations would not be too high for most people who really want to watch future Olympics and World Cups. 

But it is the TV cash that will no doubt be the largest factor in the decision making as to location and the sports to be included. If NBC reckons it got value for money having paid out US$7.7 billion for the 2020 rights, we probably won't see much change. Only if viewing figures for the equestrian events were very low is there much chance of these events disappearing. On the other hand, I think the figures for the new sports introduced this year will probably be through the roof given their appeal to youngsters. Maybe that will spur the introduction of more youth appeal sports. I can't wait for sepak takraw to be included! It could lead to that sport spreading to many more countries outside Asia.

[spoon]

Not the summer olympic but just had to share this. 

[PeterRS]

So glad you did. Double gold medallist skater Yuzuru Hanyu is one of the greatest and cutest of all athletes and has become a huge superstar in his native Japan. Only another 6 months before the next Winter Olympics. Will he still be taking part? I sure hope so. At the risk of hijacking the thread, here are two lovely photos - especially the one where he is bending down (oops!) Although it should have no effect on his athleticism and artistry, there is a lot of discussion on Japanese and other social media about his sexuality. He often appears with slightly gay mannerisms. His coach in Canada is openly gay and a gay designer often makes the costumes he wears.

[reader]

At one time you could possibly make a clear distinction between amateur and professional athletes but I don't believe that it's any longer possible, especially when it comes to the wealthier nations. The IOC has time again demonstrated that it's wholly incapable of policing itself of corruption to the point where it's a case of "move along...nothing to see here." Better they allow one and all to compete because no one would give any credence to anything they say now, anyway. I admit that watching only athletes who are competing for the "love of the game" on an ideal Olympian plane is an attractive concept but one that's impossible to regulate.

Adopting a single venue, or a limited number of venues, would greatly reduce the financial and environmental impact of the games--summer and winter. But since it would severely reduce the opportunity for IOC committee members to profit, I doubt they're eager to pursue it.

As for takraw (kick volleyball), bring it on! It would certainly keep me glued to the screen.

This article from Slate, published several days ago, addresses the often stunning inequities in athlete compensation.

Some Countries Offer Their Olympic Medalists More Than Glory

Few feats in sports earn athletes as much glory and respect as winning an Olympic medal. But what else does it earn them?

The International Olympic Committee’s Rule 40 severely limits which sponsors and partners athletes can promote at the Games, and many athletes have had a difficult time profiting off their Olympic experience. Several have actually gone into debt competing in the Olympics—like former UFC star Ronda Rousey, who became homeless a few months after winning a judo bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Games. As a result, some countries have instituted government-backed incentives for medal winners, to encourage greater participation and, in turn, the drive to win national bragging rights. Unfortunately, this exacerbates the inequality of the Olympics—only some countries have enough disposable athletic funding to dole out payments to anyone who trains or wins medals.

Some international leaders have taken the prizes to new levels. In 2016, along with straight cash, the Russian government gave away luxury cars, apartments, and a literal racehorse to various winners for the country at the Rio Games. (Ironically, most Olympians couldn’t afford to own and maintain such cars. So, they sold ’em—which while totally understandable, feels a little like kicking a gift horse in the mouth.) At the same Olympiad, German medalists got a lifetime supply of beer, and Belarusian winners received a stockpile of sausage. Yahoo Finance reports that those delicious prizes remain on offer in Tokyo.

Making the podium isn’t always the financial—or gustatory—windfall you might expect, especially if you compete in a rather niche sport, like say, race walking. Or steeplechase. Or those athletes in 1908 who competed in pistol dueling. (Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton neglected to mention you could go pro in that.) But some nations have made sure that their athletes will get paid handsomely for capturing Olympic glory, in cash and otherwise. Here’s what winners around the world can take home—along with their gold, silver, or bronze.

Some countries absolutely pile on the cash. Take Singapore, one of the richest nations in the world as measured by GDP per capita, which doles out massive payments to medal winners. Gold medalists for the island nation make around $737,000, and payouts even for bronze medals top $180,000. Italy has also adopted a model of massive payouts—although a little less than Singapore. For the Tokyo Olympics, Italian gold medalists receive €180,000 for their victory, with smaller prizes for silver and bronze. Ecuador set a $100,000 reward for any athlete who could win gold—so congrats to champion road cyclist Ricard Carapáz on his new stacks.

The Philippines promised roughly $200,000 in prize money to any gold medal winner on top of additional allowances that the government approved ahead of these Games. And the San Miguel Corporation—a large Filipino conglomerate—announced in mid-July that it would match the government’s donation amount for every gold medalist. Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz will benefit from this match, as she won the country’s first gold medal ever last week—a feat the country has chased since its first Olympic delegation attended the 1924 Paris Games. But Diaz isn’t just getting this payday. Other Filipino companies are giving her thousands more in cash to go along with it. She’s also receiving free lifetime flights on AirAsia Philippines, a house courtesy of President Rodrigo Duterte—plus at least three more homes that companies and benefactors have promised her. Phoenix Petroleum is also honoring her medal with free fuel for life. Not a bad haul!

These totals absolutely dwarf payments from Olympic committees like that of the United States. The U.S. only pays out $37,500 to gold medal winners, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze. The U.S. payout structure is similar to other countries in the Americas like Brazil and Chile, which offer financial incentives in the tens-of-thousands range. And instead of a onetime jackpot, Malaysia, Estonia, and Indonesia promise their winning athletes decades of subsidies. Malaysian gold medalists receive roughly $1,200 in monthly payments for life, Estonian winners receive €4,600 a year, and Indonesian champions get an $18,000-a-year retirement plan.

South Korea’s podium prize might be the most practical: The country enforces one of the world’s longest forced military service conscription policies in the world. All males in South Korea are drafted into 18 months of mandatory military service following their training. Written into Article 39 of the Korean constitution, this provision is hard to avoid—unless, say, you’re a K-pop star specially recommended for exemption by the Ministry of Culture. For elite athletes, there’s a loophole: win a medal at the Olympics or the Asian Games. Some of the Korean public wonder if too many athletes are gaining exemptions—skepticism that the Washington Post found was even more marked when the program was extended to specific finishes in the World Cup and other athletic events.

Continues at

https://slate.com/culture/2021/08/country-incentives-olympic-medalists-tokyo.html

[reader]

The games may be over but the memoirs will linger....

Japan's Daiki Hashimoto competes in the floor event of the artistic gymnastics men's all-around final at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre on Jul 28, 2021. He won gold, succeeding his compatriot Kohei Uchimura.  (Photo: AFP/Lionel Bonaventure)

Malaysia's Soh Wooi Yik and Aaron Chia (top) celebrate as they win the men's doubles badminton bronze medal match against Indonesia's Mohammad Ahsan (left) and Hendra Setiawan.    (Photo: AFP/Pedro Pardo)

[a-447]

In the lead-up to the games, and in the first few days of competition, I was very sceptical as to whether or not the games could outrun Covid.

But somehow Japan  managed to keep the virus at bay inside the Olympic bubble even as it was threatening to run rampant outside.

Well done, Japan! So sorry I doubted you.

I really should have known better.

[spoon]

They even allow spectators the last few days of the olympics. I saw kids attending the Izu Velodrome during cycling track event where malaysia won silver for kierin 

[fedssocr]

apparently no one has bid on the 2030 winter games

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/08/08/ioc-olympic-host-cities/

[PeterRS]

3 hours ago, fedssocr said:

apparently no one has bid on the 2030 winter games

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/08/08/ioc-olympic-host-cities/

The Washington Post has a paywall. Could you kindly copy and paste for those of us too mean to cough up the subscription! Many thanks.

On the topic, the Winter Olympics seem to have little more success at minimising losses than the Summer Games. Perhaps that is because some of the host cities have been mere towns or even villages. The 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics was held in a village with just 3,000 tax residents. They were left with a $6 million debt, although the New York State government helped take over much of that.

Albertville in the French Alps fared little better in 1992. The French government spent around $1.2 billion to upgrade the region's infrastructure. Neither during the Games nor thereafter did Albertville and its neighbouring towns see any increase in tourism. The government was left with a debt of $67 million.

Nagano in Japan had around 350,000 residents when it hosted the Olympics in 1998. As the Games neared, a quarter of the hotel rooms reserved for visitors were cancelled. Ski villages nearby which normally ran at 80% occupancy saw that drop to 60%. During the bidding process, Nagano officials plied the Olympic Committee members and their entourages with first class air tickets, stays at luxury resorts and pricey entertainment. No one now knows how high the loss of those Games rose. A member of the local Olympic Committee ordered all financial records burned before auditors could get near them! South Korea's 2018 Games in Pyeongchang is believed to have cost $13 billion against the original estimate of $7 billion.

Bigger cities did little better. Vancouver in 2010 was left with a hangover estimated at $1 billion. It is unlikely it will ever be repaid in full.

Nothing beats Sochi in 2014, though. That cost overrun is estimated to have risen from a budget of round $11 billion up to a staggering $51 billion.

https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/10-olympic-games-bankrupted-host-countries.htm

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/south-koreas-pyeongchang-winter-olympics-costs-benefits-of-hosting.html

[a-447]

22 hours ago, PeterRS said:

So glad you did. Double gold medallist skater Yuzuru Hanyu is one of the greatest and cutest of all athletes and has become a huge superstar in his native Japan. Only another 6 months before the next Winter Olympics. Will he still be taking part? I sure hope so. At the risk of hijacking the thread, here are two lovely photos - especially the one where he is bending down (oops!) Although it should have no effect on his athleticism and artistry, there is a lot of discussion on Japanese and other social media about his sexuality. He often appears with slightly gay mannerisms. His coach in Canada is openly gay and a gay designer often makes the costumes he wears.

Anyone game enough to appear in public with a bejewelled top like that must surely be gay. No "discussion" needed!

[Lonnie]

Could you kindly copy and paste for those of us too mean to cough up the subscription! Many thanks.

Olympics

Perspective

Fewer and fewer cities want to host the Olympics. That should tell the IOC something.

Listen to article

6 min

The flag of Japan flies during the Opening Ceremonies for the Tokyo Olympics. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)

By 

Barry Svrluga

Sports columnist

Yesterday at 3:57 a.m. EDT

1.5k

TOKYO — The Olympics are awesome, and the Olympics are broken. It didn’t take the Tokyo Games — the entirety of which took place while the host city endured a state of emergency — to prove that. Still, watching the International Olympic Committee put the Games on a fork and force-feed them to the resistant toddler that was Japan, well, it drove home the point about who’s actually in power here. Clearly, it’s not the people of the host city or country. It never is.

Get the latest news and results from the Tokyo Olympics

Of all the developments over the past three weeks — the rising coronavirus cases in Japan, the Games staged in empty arenas, the athletes pouring out their emotions about how difficult it was merely to compete — the one that matters most slipped in before the cauldron was lit. On July 21, the IOC foisted the 2032 Summer Olympics upon Brisbane, Australia — sorry, awarded those Games to that coastal city.

That move means the Olympics are still being granted to cities that spend billions of dollars to stage them, then are left with a questionable legacy. Tokyo’s original budget: $7.4 billion. Its actual admitted cost: $15.4 billion. But this is all some manner of financial semantics, numbers that often don’t include pre-Games construction or other major projects. The only thing to know about the true cost is it’s never what the IOC says it is.

The Tokyo Olympics: 1964 celebrations and 2021 struggles

Whatever the numbers, this isn’t sustainable, nor has it been for decades. The further sham, though, is this: Brisbane wasn’t up against a slew of eager bidders, because a slew of eager bidders doesn’t exist. As Andrew Zimbalist, a Smith College economist who has written books about the IOC and its bidding process, said: “I think it’s really clear what’s going on.

 

 

“In my view, what’s happened over the last 20 years or more is they have a dwindling number of cities that enter — and then stay in — the bidding process,” Zimbalist said. “… The demand-and-supply situation has changed.”

Which is further indication that the entire Olympics should change. No more of this fleecing of countries and cities to stage a three-week party — and then vanishing.

 

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Top moments from the Tokyo Olympics

 

Washington Post reporters and a photojournalist recall favorite moments from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and what it was like to cover the games during a pandemic. (Allie Caren, Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post)

For those keeping score, here are the future Olympics that are scheduled: Beijing in February (really?), Paris in 2024, Milan and Cortina in 2026, Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane four years after that. You’ll notice an unprecedented hole, the 2030 Winter Games, still looking for a home. There’s a reason for that.

Life after gold: How winning trained these Olympians to face the unexpected

The world has caught on to the ruse, and the Olympics need to respond by acknowledging their process is outdated and unnecessary. To land the 2032 Games, Brisbane beat out … whom, exactly? We used to know precisely what cities were in, and there was actual disappointment among those not granted the bid.

 

 

But for the Beijing Games that sit just six months off, six cities originally expressed interest. Oslo; Stockholm; Krakow, Poland; and Lviv, Ukraine, all withdrew, unable to muster public or political support. That left only Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Beijing as the candidates. The IOC’s response: take the bidding out of the public eye.

“This way, they can’t be embarrassed by an inadequacy of bidders,” Zimbalist said by phone late last week. “They can’t be embarrassed by bidders dropping out. They can’t be embarrassed by having no bidders. We don’t know anything about how it happens.”

That’s telling and so indicative of the way the IOC operates. Lest you believe that the organization that elaborately and expensively runs the Games should be trusted in either motivations or methods, here’s Thomas Bach, the organization’s president and a former Olympic fencer from Germany, on the lack of fans in the Tokyo stands.

 

 

“When you were in the competitions, in many cases you did not realize that there were no spectators,” said Bach, an utterance that is demonstrably false. “And maybe in some cases you could even experience the feelings of the athletes closer and better than being surrounded by so many spectators.”

Man, those fans. So annoying.

Tokyo logs record coronavirus cases, as government struggles to contain spread

While the Tokyo Olympics didn’t change what the Games are, they exposed it further. The pandemic led the Japanese government to bar fans in Tokyo and surrounding areas, which would seem to reflect the dire nature of the virus here. Through Sunday, there have been 436 positive tests associated with the Games since July 1. We’ll have to wait until we all return to the 205 countries from where we traveled to learn whether the virus spreads because the Olympics occurred. Whether it does or not, it was a risk the IOC was willing to impose on Japan and the world.

 

 

Still, for Bach to suggest that the lack of fans was either negligible or could possibly be interpreted as a positive is ludicrous — not to mention disrespectful to the zealots who, in normal times, would travel around the globe and pay money to attend the event on which he builds his enterprise.

“I’m not going to lie,” American soccer star Megan Rapinoe said early in the Games. “That part sucks.”

And that’s the truth. With no fans, the Olympics were stripped down to what matters to the IOC anyway: television programming for the international networks that bankroll the entire operation. Tokyo wasn’t a cultural backdrop; it was a sound stage. And without that exploration of a nation’s history and people and traditions that could be offered when and if the world gathers together, there’s not much reason to move the Games from one new place to another.

 

 

“Why rebuild the Olympic Shangri-La every four years in a new city?” Zimbalist said. “It’s not 100 years ago, when you had to move the Games around to expose them to different countries. International telecommunications allow everyone to see them. So let’s have one city be the permanent host and stop pretending the Games are athletic events. They’re construction events.”

In shadow of Japan’s Fukushima disaster, the Olympic message of ‘recovery’ rings hollow

I have to admit: That solution is practical and logical and responsible. But I don’t love it. Even though a city that’s hosting the Olympics isn’t really a representative version of itself during the Games, exploring different countries and customs is part of the entire affair’s appeal. There is a palpable boost to the athletes of a host nation, and it turns out that’s even true in a pandemic Games with no in-person home support. Japan won 58 medals, including 27 golds, at these Olympics, new highs in both categories.

But the Olympics exist on parallel planes. It’s possible to be transported and inspired by the athletes and the competition but struggle to marry that with the largesse and grift that have become the standard to stage the Games. Moving the Olympics from city to city, requiring billions of dollars in cost overruns each time, is an antiquated premise. We can learn about other cultures by examining where the athletes came from and telling their stories.

So sayonara, Tokyo. Sorry for imposing. Keep the notes on your experience — and share them with the cities that seek future Games so they can be fairly warned. The Olympics shouldn’t be a road show that lays waste to a town. They should find a home so we can stop wasting money and land and resources and just celebrate the athletes, whom the Games are supposed to be for anyway.

Updated August 7, 2021

More about the Tokyo Olympics

The Tokyo Olympics run from July 23 to August 8. Find the latest news and updates from the Tokyo Olympics here, and join us as we track the Olympic medal count, sport by sport. Here’s the full schedule and TV guide.

• On the track, Allyson Felix won a record 11th medal and the U.S. men’s 4x400 team won gold.
• The U.S. men’s basketball team won a fourth straight gold medal, led by Kevin Durant, with a 87-82 defeat of France in the final of the Olympic tournament. The U.S. women’s team will play Japan for gold on Saturday at 10:30 p.m.
• Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya and compatriot Brigid Kosgei won the gold and silver in the women’s marathon. American Molly Seidel, running in her third marathon ever, took bronze.
• The U.S. women’s water polo team won gold again, its third straight, with a dominant 14-5 win over
•  

[PeterRS]

As a postscript to the Olympics, there is an interesting little article on the BBC's website. We are used to seeing the big boys go home with the most medals - in this case the USA and China. But is that a fair way of looking at a country's achievements just because both are huge countries with huge populations and huge sporting programmes at almost all levels of society and massive sports facilities? Frankly it is not!  What if the medals table is arranged on the basis of total population? Would that not be fairer?

On the basis of total population, the USA would have been ranked 60th. The top 10 would have been San Marino, Bermuda, Bahamas, New Zealand, Jamaica, Slovenia, Fiji, Georgia, The Netherlands and Hungary.

How about based on GDP per capita? On this basis, the top 10 would have been China, ROC (Russia), Kenya, Ukraine, Uganda, Ethiopia, India, Brazil, Iran and Uzbekistan.

There are other anomalies. The UK, many Commonwealth countries and those from the former Soviet Union tend to have a better sports infrastructure than many others. India excels at cricket, but that is not an Olympic Sport. It also excels at hockey, but that yields only 2 gold medals, one for men and one for women, whereas a top male gymnast has the possibility of up to 8 gold medals and a table tennis champion 4 gold medals. An individual in my bete noire the equestrian events can win up to a staggering 6 gold medals. Yet a high jumper or a javelin thrower can win just one. 

To judge success merely on account of the number of medals won without taking into account several other key factors inevitably discriminates badly in favour of the big boys. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58143550

[spoon]

Another interesting data to see is the rank vs sports expenditure per capita, to put it in perspective. But i dont think this data is easily accessible like gdp though, but it would be nice to see. 

[reader]

As interesting as it is to contemplate on how the IOC could go about democratizing the basis on how medals are awarded, it's more suited for an on-line Fantasy Olympics.

Imagine trying to explain to Brazilians that their World Cup victory has been re-gifted to Slovenia on the grounds of political correctness. 

Or to Russian hockey fans that their Olympic title has been re-assigned to Hungary.

Or to British Open winner who has to surrender his trophy to a player from Burundi who shot 10 over par.

The truth is that fans attend and watch the Olympics to see the best of the best, not the rest of the rest. They want to see the big boys--and girls. NBC and other networks aren't about to pony up the billions they do to see the actual results set aside by even the best of intentions.

For better or worse, to the winner goes the spoils. If it was any other way, why would anyone work their butt off for four years in preparation.

[PeterRS]

With apologies to @captainmick and others, again on the equestrian events. For the Olympics and Paralympics a total of around 325 horses are flown in on 19 chartered aircraft. 247 flew through Liege in Belgium where there are special arrangements for equine transport. There they had to wait for 60 days of stringent health checks and then a 7 days quarantine for covid checks before being loaded on specially adapted Emirates Boeing 777 cargo flights via Dubai. Most are in 2 per stall - i.e. per pallet. On board they are accompanied by vets and trainers. Once in Japan, the horses have their own specially built Olympic Village. Leaving aside the substantial costs of that 67 day wait, the actual cost of flying one horse obviously depends on distance, weight and other factors. The website CBS8 estimates that cost can be up to $30,000 although the average is obviously considerably less. Even if it is $20,000 that still amounts to $6.5 million

In theory, 19 Emirates 777s can carry more than 6,000 athletes. This will still represent a much cheaper cost because horses require much more expensive ground handling at departure and arrival airports. Since a total of 11,090 athletes took part in the recently concluded Olympics, all could have been accommodated in just double the number of aircraft required for the non-human horses! 

Given that athletes came from such a large number of countries, the above costs/estimates are bound to be mere ballpark figures. But with the Olympics getting more and more expensive to mount, I for one simply cannot see the value of paying huge amounts for a few events requiring horses. But I do realise it will be the panjandrums on the Olympic Committee and the viewing figures of NBC that will ultimately decide.

https://www.insider.com/olympic-horses-travel-tokyo-plane-passports-in-flight-meals-grooming-2021-7