With a little under six months to go, the question over whether it is feasible for the Tokyo Olympics to take place has reared its head again.
The embattled Tokyo Organising Committee is currently besieged by spiralling costs, an underwhelmed public and the ongoing global impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet they, along with the International Olympic Committee, are adamant that the games will still get underway as scheduled on July 23.
So how are the 2021 games going to look?
Does Japan still want to host?
On Friday, rumours emerged that suggested Japan was looking for a way out.
A report in British newspaper The Times cited an unnamed source in Japan’s ruling coalition, who said the decision had been taken by Parliament to cancel the games.
Some experts, including infectious disease specialist at Kobe University Kentaro Iwata, have asked why the Government would risk hosting the games now when Japan is currently “facing far more danger than last year” as case numbers rise in Japan.
Polls in Japan suggest that 80 per cent of people do not want the games to go ahead this year.
However, the majority want another postponement, but the IOC has already said that is out of the question.
Why can’t they postpone again?
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has the final say on any changes to the schedule, has been very clear that the games will take place this year or not at all.
IOC boss Thomas Bach said there was “no Plan B” when it came to hosting the Olympics this year.
That was echoed by IOC vice-president John Coates in an interview with The Ticket, who said: “The public don’t understand it can’t be postponed again.”
Part of the reason for that is due to scheduling.
Any further delay would impinge on the Winter Olympics of 2022, which is due to take place in Beijing in February, while Paris 2024 is also on the horizon.
Another is down to cost.
The games are already setting back Japanese organisers an estimated $US15.4 billion ($19.83 billion).
The initial postponement from 2020 alone cost the Japanese economy an estimated $3.8 billion.
Delaying again would make those astronomical costs even more galling.
So, the games are still going to happen?
The reports of cancellation were swiftly rebuked by a variety of people on Friday, including Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in Parliament, where he said Japan was determined to realise the Tokyo Olympics.
World Athletics chief Lord Sebastian Coe told The Ticket, “I do think the games will take place,” adding “I sincerely hope they do”.
The Australian Olympic Committee also shot down the rumours, with chief executive Matt Carroll fronting a media conference on Friday to say, “The Tokyo games are on … If any country can handle a logistical challenge, it is Japan”.
Meanwhile, Coates told The Ticket that there had been “no discussion on cancellation”.
“At the end of the day, politicians do have to take into account the feelings of those inside their party and the general public,” he said.
“But this is not the message we are getting from Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga or the president of the Tokyo Organising Committee, Yoshiro Mori.”
These Olympics will be quite different though, right?
“Tokyo 2020 will be a very different games,” Carroll said at his press conference on Friday.
It certainly won’t be business as usual when the athletes get to Tokyo. For one, they’ll all arrive at different times.
Carroll outlined some of those logistics on ABC Melbourne’s Grand National show on Saturday.
“Athletes won’t arrive until four or five days before their competition and they will leave within 48 hours,” Carroll said.
“They’ll be in the village; they’ll go to the training facilities and they’ll go to their competition venues — and that’s it.
“It’s not going to be a normal games where there are going to be opportunities for that cultural exchange.”
So what does that mean?
Tales from the athletes’ village of highly tuned athletes letting off steam and partying with their fellow competitors have become a legendary part of Olympic games folklore, but with the new restrictions, there won’t be much time for all that this time around.
Coates told The Ticket the IOC will issue a “playbook” on February 5 with all the information on how the games will take place in a COVID-safe way.
“It details all the COVID-19 countermeasures that have been put in place … [it] will be an essential reference document for anybody involved in the games,” he said.
From a presentation perspective, Tokyo has already had to “start from scratch”, according to advertising executive Hiroshi Sasaki.
“Rather than flashy, extravagant ceremonies we now have a chance to change [them],” Sasaki told The Ticket in December.
So instead of a lavish opening ceremony, featuring choreographed shows featuring hundreds of performers and the traditional procession of athletes parading in front of thousands of fans, expect something a little more restrained, and physically distanced.
Having said that, the Olympic Torch Relay is still expected to take place through all 47 Japanese prefectures, starting in late March.
Will athletes need to be vaccinated?
The AOC said it would not make vaccination of athletes compulsory, and neither is the IOC.
“There’s no “A” for athletes in the [vaccination] queue list,” Carroll told ABC Melbourne’s Grand National.
“We’re not trying to queue jump or anything of that nature, our plans are OK even if the athletes aren’t vaccinated.
“Vaccination is not a silver bullet, and I think it will be foolish for anyone to think, ‘Oh, I’ve been vaccinated, now I’m safe’,” he said.
Coates meanwhile, said Japan was currently coordinating its vaccine rollout and that he requested that those working at the Olympic sites were given access.
“I asked if they could take into account the Olympic workforce numbering around 100,000 — to rank them highly for access to a vaccine because of their daily interaction with the athletes,” he told The Ticket.
