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Jonathan White

Tokyo 2020 is 100 days away, with the delayed Olympic Games starting on July 23 - a year after they were initially scheduled thanks to Covid-19.
The spectre of Covid is certain to hang over the Games. 
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has vowed the utmost in anti-virus measures to deliver a “wonderful” Olympics but there are those who have their doubts.
Koike made her comments at an event to mark the 100-day countdown, but it has not gone unnoticed that Japan is seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases and several places - Tokyo included - could be placed in a state of emergency.


Some experts have raised concerns that the Games could be a superspreader event, with the Tokyo Medical Association expecting them to be “really difficult”.
The fact that the much smaller European Indoor Championships in Poland in March  saw athletes leave with Covid-19, despite measures to prevent that, has done little to alleviate fears.
Tokyo 2020: Naomi Osaka talks more sense than Olympic playbook
While there are plenty of measures put in place to ensure that the Games will be safe, the strongest of them is not in place.
Vaccinations are encouraged but not necessary. There is no rule in place to demand that athletes are vaccinated and it is further complicated as different nations have different stances on whether athletes can jump the queue. 
Tokyo has taken the decision to keep foreign fans, friends and family away - and it is missing out on the money from tickets already sold overseas - but an estimated 60,000 people from 200 nations are still expected in Tokyo. 



An outbreak at the Games does not bear thinking about. 
That measure to remove fans has seen National Olympic Committees express their disappointment, with many saying that while it is a shame, they also understand the decision. 
The Japanese public are not behind the Games. The last poll in January had four out of five respondents against the Olympics going ahead in July - favouring either another postponement or cancellation.
Olympics will be ‘really difficult’ says Tokyo Medical Association
There have been few protests though unlike in other host cities, such as Rio ahead of the last Games in 2016, but that’s not to say no one is speaking out, with Japanese athletes breaking their traditional silence.
The Japan Association of Athletics Federations Athlete of the Year Hitomi Niiya summed it up last year. “As an athlete, I’m all for the Olympics. But as a citizen, I’m against it,” she said after breaking Japan’s 10,000m record. “A person’s life is more important than the Olympics.”
In January, Niiya expressed her hope that the public would come round.



“I want the Games to be held with support from everyone,” she said. “There’s something wrong if it’s only athletes. If the people at large don’t want it, the meaning of it is lost.”
Niiya has been among the most vocal of athletes, but others have followed including swimmer Yayoi Matsumoto who questioned why the Games were still going ahead.
These questions will remain but it is full steam ahead 100 days out, and with billions of dollars at stake it could be no other way.
Tokyo 2020: China’s Nina Schultz aiming to fulfil grandma’s Olympic dream
This Olympics has been troubled from the outset, with a catalogue of calamities beyond spiralling costs. 
Japanese prime minister  Shinzo Abe, for whom Tokyo 2020 was a pet project, retired through illness. Sexism rows saw creative head Hiroshi Sasaki follow Tokyo 2020 organising commitee president Yoshiro Mori in stepping down.
Still they will come. No other nation is likely to follow North Korea’s lead in pulling out, as they reportedly did last week citing Covid-19 concerns.


Individual athletes may yet choose to stay away, though, for pandemic, personal or political reasons.
The political aspect around these Olympics is not going to go away, with China dominating the landscape against a backdrop of allegations of human rights abuse, trade wars and souring international relations. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are less than a year away.
The Australian team have been criticised for their Asics-manufactured kit, with the Japanese brand posting on Chinese social media that it will continue to use Xinjiang cotton. Asics has said that was not an official statement. 
Ex-Tokyo Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori under fire for another sexist remark
Cotton could be a concern for the IOC, whose own uniforms are made by Chinese brand Anta Sports, which has taken the stance of using Xinjiang cotton.
At every turn these Games seem cursed.  
Between Covid-19 and everything else, these were the Olympics that were never meant to be but for Japan and the IOC they are the Games that they cannot afford to stop. 


Perhaps they will prove to be the best yet as the Olympic spirit triumphs over a pandemic, perhaps not. It will be different, that’s for sure.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic torch could go down in history as a beacon of hope for the post-pandemic world or the start of the fire. 


Chinese diving star Chen Yuxi says she has received threats, denies she ‘has connections’

Chinese swimmers’ doping tests: Wada launches Operation Puncture to probe leak

China women’s volleyball coach Zhao says ‘hard work’ can take team back to top

Doping offence earns Tokyo Olympics swimming gold medallist a 21-month ban

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games - 100 days till the Olympics that refuse to die

People walk by a countdown clock for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Photo: AP

US karate champ Sakura Kokumai told to ‘go home’ in anti-Asian rant as she trains for Tokyo 2020 Olympics

US Olympian Sakura Kokumai performs during a press event ay CES 2020 in Las Vegas. Photo: AFP

Tokyo 2020: China’s Nina Schultz aiming to fulfil grandma’s Olympic dream

A Chinese flag and Olympic sign are seen on a jacket worn by a Chinese sportsman during a ceremony in Beijing in 2018. Photo: EPA

Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Japan mulls 50 per cent cap on Games spectators, says media

Japanese media is reporting that the Tokyo 2020 Olympics events will be limited to 50 per cent spectator capacity. Photo: AFP

Tokyo 2020 Olympics: no Chinese vaccines to be taken by Team Japan, minister says

Seiko Hashimoto (second from right, front row), president of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organising committee, and Japan’s Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa (right, front row) in Tokyo during a teleconference with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. Photo: Kyodo

epa09048266 Tamayo Marukawa, Japan’s Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Game, attends the five-party meeting at the Tokyo 2020 headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, 03 March 2021. The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) held a five-party meeting on 03 March 2021 with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Government of Japan, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). EPA-EFE/Du Xiaoyi / POOL

Tokyo 2020: two-time gold medallist Yohan Blake would ‘rather miss Olympics’ than receive coronavirus vaccine

Sprinter Yohan Blake after Jamaica set a new world record in the 4x200-metre relay at the IAAF World Relays Championships in Nassau, Bahamas in 2014. Photo: Reuters

Athletics - Jamaica National Racers Grand Prix - Kingston - 11/06/16 Yohan Blake (L), winner Usain Bolt (C) and Asafa Powell in action during men's 100m race. REUTERS/Gilbert Bellamy TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

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Concerns over Covid-19 are only one aspect of Tokyo Games that have long seemed cursed
Japanese capital expecting to welcome 60,000 visitors from 200 countries ahead of July 23 start



Concerns over Covid-19 are only one aspect of Tokyo Games that have long seemed cursed but set to go ahead on July 23.


IOC (International Olympic Committee)

Japan

Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Xinjiang cotton

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


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Faster, Higher, Stronger

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Concerns over Covid-19 are only one aspect of Tokyo Games that have long seemed cursed Japanese capital expecting to welcome 60,000 visitors from 200 countries ahead of July 23 start

Concerns over Covid-19 are only one aspect of Tokyo Games that have long seemed cursed

Japanese capital expecting to welcome 60,000 visitors from 200 countries ahead of July 23 start