TOKKYO OLYMPICS POSTPONED UNTIL 2021

IOC and JOC reached to a decision of postponing the Games until 2021
source- getty images

The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, and the Prime Minister of Japan, Abe Shinzo on monday confirmed delay of the Games saying that  “Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021.”

“In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the World Health Organization today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community,” according to a joint statement from the IOC and the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.

The leaders also agreed that Olympic flame will stay in Japan and the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.”The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present. Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan. It was also agreed that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.”

Mori Yoshiro, the President of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee; the Olympic Minister, Hashimoto Seiko; the Governor of Tokyo, Koike Yuriko; the Chair of the IOC Coordination Commission, John Coates; IOC Director General Christophe De Kepper; and the IOC Olympic Games Executive Director, Christophe Dubi also joined the conference.

It is an unprecedented decision of delaying Olympic games by a year. Earlier, Olympics been cancelled due to world wars. 1916 Berlin -Cancelled due to outbreak of WW1 1940 Tokyo;1944 London- Cancelled due to outbreak of WW2 Winter olympics 1940 Tokyo;1944 London- Cancelled due to WW2 1972 Munich-11 israeli athletes were killed by Palestines who broke into the Olympic Village and events were suspended for more than 24 hrs before the Gamees resumed .

French Judo great Teddy Riner took to instagram to react to the decision and says we have “more important fight to win” and will be present in 2021.

India’s badminton bronze medallist from London 2012, Saina Nehwal suppported the decision of IOC and said “every athlete will be at peace now. Safety first.”

Norwegian long distance track runner and steeplechaser Karoline Grovdal is optimistic and said “My dreams are not cancelled ,they are just postponed .”

THE FATE OF OLYMPICS IN QUESTION

The opening ceremony of the olympics are just months away and many national committees and athletes are demanding IOC to postpone the tournament in the time of coronavirus outbreak. In this post , lets look who says what about the fate of olympics .

But before that , i must inform you that the final decision rests in the hands of IOC only.

Spain’s Olympic Committee president Alejandro Blanco on 18 march said he would prefer this summer’s Tokyo Olympics to be postponed .“The decision is for the International Olympic Committee [to make] after getting reports from the World Health Organisation and the organising committee,” he said in a statement.“We want the Olympics to take place, but with security. We’re an important country in the world and four months before the games, our athletes can’t arrive in equal conditions.”

USA Sports committee released a statement on 20 march that its main priority is that ” all athletes should put their health and wellness, and the health and wellness of the greater community, above all else at this unprecedented moment” and do not want to take the oppurtunity of nay athlete to participate in Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee said in a joint statement Sunday “While we recognize the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community”.They further said “This is not solely about athlete health — it is about public health.”

The Australian Olympic Committee after an emergency teleconference on Monday morning unanimously agreed a team could not be assembled for the 2020 Olympics given the current situation at home and abroad.Paralympics Australia also released a statement, noting it “is wholly supportive of a postponement of the Paralympic Games in the best interests of public health, both here and abroad”.“It is hard to see another option,” it said.

 The chairman of the British Olympic Association, Hugh Robertson said “We can’t see any way that this can go ahead as things are constituted,” He further said “I expect we will be joining Canada and Australia shortly.”

JOC President Yasuhiro Yamashita told reporters on Monday “From the athletes’ point of view of safety and security, we have to come to a stage where we cannot help but consider things including postponement,”. However, he said too long a delay would be a burden to athletes given the possibility of having to qualify again, for example.

The United States governing bodies of swimming and track — two of the three top-tier Summer Games sports — had called on their national Olympic officials to push for a postponement.

INDIA Stand

“We are expecting the IOC to organize the Olympics during its scheduled dates. We will go by what the IOC decides. If the IOC says the Olympics will go on, we will have to participate.” IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta told Reuters by phone.

“Olympics is all about having the best of the best competing for the highest prize in sport and in today’s scenario where the world is locked down and the training facilities are all shut, that cannot be a reality,” said Multiple tennis doubles Grand Slam winner Mahesh Bhupathi

India’s chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand on 19march said “I think, in the present scenario, with the health scares and all the travel restrictions and all, it is a tough time and at the moment the whole world is thinking about health and safety for its citizens, so I think given the situation it is better if the Olympics are postponed.” 

 Star wrestler Bajrang Punia on Monday called for postponement of the Games considering the outbreak of COVID-19 and decisions of multiple nations to pull out from the game saying “Before Olympics we have to fight Coronavirus. If situation does not improve, and continues for 2-3 months, it will be perfectly alright to postpone the Olympics.”

After increase in pressure from athletes, federations and national committees to postpone the Games IOC released the statement saying “The IOC will … start detailed discussions to complete its assessment of the rapid development of the worldwide health situation and its impact on the Olympic Games, including the scenario of postponement.”“The IOC is confident that it will have finalised these discussions within the next four weeks.”

Tokyo Organising Committee released a press release saying “In light of this situation, Tokyo 2020 held an urgent video conference with IOC President Bach last night, during which we agreed to proceed with detailed discussions of different scenarios, including postponement of the Games, in full coordination with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Government of Japan, relevant Japanese authorities, international sport federations and National Olympic Committees.”

TOKYO OLYMPICS-ARE THEY CURSED ?

As only 120 days are left for global sports event – XXXII Olympiad or Tokyo 2020, let’s look at the history of Tokyo as the host city of the Games.

It was the year 1932 and process of selection of host city of 1936 Olympics begun with top 4 bidders for the Olympic 1940 – Barcelona,Argentina Rome ,Italy Helsinki,Finland Tokyo, Japan

In 1936, Tokyo was finalised to be the host city and creates history by being the first non-Western city to win an Olympic bid in a surprise decision.

The preparations started.The Olympic Village was to be built on the present sites of Kinuta Park or Todoroki Gorge. A schedule was drawn up, and guidelines were printed in four languages. Monthly magazines and posters were printed and distributed internationally. Construction began on some buildings, and arrangements were made with hotels, travel agents, and airlines for easy access.

Source – wikipedia

All was going smooth.The games were scheduled from September 21 to October 6, 1940.The Tokyo organizing committee released its budget for the Games(after the Games were cancelled) a total of ¥20.1 million, one-third of which would have been paid by the Tokyo metropolitan government.

But the dark clouds shadowed the Olympics and on July 7 1937,Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. Kono Ichiro, a member of the Diet (legislature), immediately requested that the Olympics be forfeited.

Duration of the 2nd Sino- Japanese war – July 7, 1937 – September 2, 1945
source – wikipedia

But Japan’s IOC delegates persisted under a belief that the war would soon be over(Coincidentally, till now, Japan is insisting on holding Tokyo 2020 OLympics as scheduled despite the coronavirus outbreak).

The war intensified and alternative options of choosing either different site or of boycotting the Games were they to proceed in Japan were in consideration.

In March 1938, the Japanese provided reassurances to the IOC that Tokyo would still be able to serve as the host city. However, many Diet members in Japan had already openly questioned hosting the Olympics in wartime, and the military was unreasonably demanding that the organizers build the venues from wood because they needed metals for the war front(I feel that the deamand was partially unreasonable. It was right on the part of Japanese government to use most of the essential resources for the war but demanding the organisesrs to use wood…why?They could have used something other than metals in building.Necessity is the mother of invention).

In July, a legislative session was held to decide the matters of the Summer and Winter Olympics and the planned 1940 World’s Fair .Japan believed that they could wrap up the war till 1940 so they “postponed “1940 World’s Fair but Olympics could not be moved and was cancelled.

The IOC then awarded the Games to Helsinki,Finland, the runner-up city in the original bidding process. The Games were then scheduled to be staged from July 20 to August 4, 1940 (which were previously scheduled from September 21 to October 6, 1940 as mentioned earlier ).The Olympic Games were suspended indefinitely following the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945) and did not resume until the London Games of 1948.

Tokyo 1964 Opening Ceremony.
source- olympic.org

Eventually Tokyo, during the 55th IOC session in West Germany, on 26 May 1959 was chosen to host the 1964 Summer Olympics over bids from Detroit, Brussels and Vienna.  The estimated cost of Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympics by The Oxford Olympics Study is at US$282 million in 2015-dollars compared to costs of USD 4.6 billion for Rio 2016, USD 40-44 billion for Beijing 2008 and USD 51 billion for Sochi 2014( the most expensive Olympics in history).

The 1964 Games were a landmark in Olympics history as –

–the first Olympics to be held in Asia. –first time South Africa was barred from taking partdue to its apartheid system in sports. –first to be telecast internationally without the need for tapes to be flown overseas, as they had been for the 1960 Olympics four years earlier. –first to have color telecasts, albeit partially. –the last to use a traditional cinder track for the track events. Since 1968, a smooth, synthetic, all-weather track is used.

The 1964 Summer Games featured 19 different sports encompassing 25 disciplines with USA topping the chart with maximum golds(36),USSR winning the most overall medals and Japan was ranked 3rd with 29 medals out of which 16 were gold

References- 1940 Summer Olympics , 1964 olympics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Summer_Olympics

HANDOVER CEREMONY TO BE HELD WITH NO SPECTATORS

No changes announced in schedule of prefectures in Tokyo leg

The Greece Olympic committee on Sunday(march 15) announced that the handover ceremony will be done behind closed doors as planned this week on March 19 at the Panathenaic Stadium amid COVID-19 outbreak .


Earlier, Olympic torch lighting ceremony was also conducted with no spectators at the Olympia ground and the Greek leg of the Olympic Torch Relay got cancelled after it attracted huge crowd of spectators.


“Hellenic Olympic Committee has agreed to carry out the handover ceremony as planned on March 19th, although there will be no public in attendance. Tokyo 2020 will continue to collaborate closely with all related organisations including the IOC and the Hellenic Olympic Committee.” Said Tokyo Olympic committee in a Statement dated 14 march.

“The Hellenic Olympic Committee has decided that the handover ceremony for the “Tokyo 2020″ Olympic Games, on Thursday, March 19, will take place at the Panathenaic Stadium behind closed doors,” the committee said in latest statement.


“Following the orders of the Greek State in order to contain the coronavirus pandemic and for the protection of public health no accreditation cards issued will be valid,” Hellenic Committee said.


Greece has reported three fatalities from the disease and 228 confirmed cases by late Saturday.

In handover ceremony , the National Olympic Committee of Greece will hand over the Olympic torch to the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.


Despite much disturbances in the schedule of ceremonies of Olympics and cancellation major sporting events around the world , Abe and as well as the International Olympic Committee are adamant on holding the Games as scheduled from 24 July 2020

NO CHANGE IN OLYMPICS SCHEDULE AMID COVID-19 OUTBREAK

PM Abe insists on conducting Olympics as planned in spite of the outbreak of pandemic COVID-19.

PM Shinzo Abe confirmed no changes in the Olympics and Paralympics schedule despite the increase in the cases of pandemic coronavirus cases across the globe in a press conference on Saturday.
“We will overcome the spread of the infection and host the Olympics without problem, as planned,” Abe said and delaying or cancelling the Olympics was “not a subject at all” in his call with trump.
Till March 13, a total of 1421 confirmed cases has been reported by Japan Government including some 700 passengers and crew of the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship.
Major sports tournament have been postponed, suspended or cancelled in the wake of widespread novel coronavirus including football tournaments like Serie A, La Liga and India-SA ODI series .
Though , the boxing events in London and YONEX All England Open 2020 in Birmingham will go ahead as scheduled .
Tokyo Olympic organisers estimated the cost of the Games at around 1.35 trillion yen($12.6 billion) at the end of 2019 with city of Tokyo paying 597 billion yen ,the Japanese organising committee contributing 603 billion yen and the central government funding the games with 150 billion yen.
Research firm Normura has predicted a 0.7% contradiction in GDP of japan for 2020 and could be up to 1.5% if the Games gets cancelled. The cancellation in Olympic games will affect the tourism industry as well as general consumption industry. However, Japan being a industrialised economy, tourism industry accounted for just 0.9% of the GDP in 2018, according to economic research organisation CEIC.

THE OLYMPIC TORCH COMMENCES ON 8-DAY RELAY ACROSS GREECE

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic flame lit in Olympia,Greece by High Priestess
Source-Tokyo 2020 official site

Olympic flame lighting ceremony took place on Thursday, 4 months before the opening ceremony of Tokyo Olympics at the ancient Olympia, Greece as per the Olympics rituals under the unprecedented health lockdown.

‘High priestess’ after offering prayer to  ‘Apollo’(the sun god ) held the torch to the Olympic bowl  and kindled the flame. The torch was lit by the special parabolic mirror which reflected the sun rays intensely towards it.

The bowl was ,then ,carried to the nearby stadium and placed beside the olive branch  followed by another prayer to Apollo for His blessing. The high priestess after the traditional dance by the maidens  handover the torch to the First torchbearer and released the dove, a symbol of peace.

Anna Korakaki ,Rio 2016 Shooting gold medallist , became the first female torch bearer ever to start the torch relay and Mizuki Noguchi ,gold medallist at Athens 2016 , was the second torchbearer and also the first Japanese torchbearer.

The torch will relay on a 8-day long journey across the Greece and will be handed over to the Tokyo Olympic Organisers at handover ceremony in Panathinaiko Stadium on 19 march.

The handover ceremony in Athens include the performace inspired by the Greek and Japanese mythology about the story of how the flame becomes the light of hope for the future.

Complete coverage of Tokyo olympic flame lighting ceremony –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkmLE2F-N2o

121-day long Torch relay schedule in japan-https://tokyo2020.org/en/torch/