JCC Arena 2020 Summer Olympics - Tokyo Japan

2020 or 2021, I feel like having the the games at all during the pandemic is minimizing the scope and impact of the pandemic. It’s reckless. Tokyo is under a state of emergency. It’s endangering the athletes and potentially their home countries holding these games. It’s a danger to Tokyo and Japan.

It’s not the athletes who decide this. It’s the people who profit from the Olympics making this happen. They want their payday. And it’s the athletes who pay the price. (And the people of Japan.)

We see once again see how the athletes are victimized by the people who profit from the Olympics. The athletes are usually young people who have been conditioned most of their lives to practice and compete - even when it’s not in their best interest. We saw that recently in the Russian doping scandal and the institutional abuse of US gymnasts. The athletes are part of a process that treats them like a commodity. Almost like they are race horses. And then we get the rosey human interest story selling us a different scenario for two weeks on tv during the games.

Now we have a Women’s Beach Volleyball wardrobe dispute. It’s trivial compared to other problems. It’s obvious what’s going on - sex sells. Bikini bottoms pull in higher ratings than athletic shorts. Lower ratings mean someone is loosing money. The only reason their is Olympic Beach Volley Ball to begin with is probably because of the revealing uniforms. That’s another obvious secret no one involved with the Olympics wants to say out loud because everyone is making money on it.

I feel like that fact has been made blatantly clear having the Olympics in 2021. The illusion of them still being the 2020 games shows the fantasy world the IOC is operating under removed from the reality of a pandemic. A desire by the IOC to have their timeline of promotion, sponsorship, and profit not be derailed. Why not wait another year to have the summer 2020 Olympics in 2022? Probably because there is a winter Olympics in China February 2022 that would be disrupted.

It’s not calling them the 2020 games that’s the problem. It’s having them during the pandemic.

 

Tokyo doesn’t want to have the games. At least the people living there. The IOC is the one who wants it.

 

I’m glad we somehow all agree no one cares about the nomenclature but we need vast, rambling rhetorical shell games justifying why it’s actually something we care about except we don’t. What a productive argument this is.

 

Apparently the director for the opening ceremony has been fired.

 

Posted about it with a link to the story on the last page. Fired for making a Holocaust joke.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57924885

 

You had to include 'toss'

 

And to celebrate the opening of the Games, WADA's head accused American athletes of not following WADA rules for 90% of their number, therefore falsifying competition x)

 

Anyone else have The Peacock Network? Little disappointed in their "Olympics Channel" though maybe it will get better now the games have officially started.

Meanwhile all 100 of these athletes should not been allowed to go:

 

Soooooo... I somewhat quibble with this headline as there's no nuance. Some of those folks had COVID already, and the science definitely says "still get the vaccine" -- but for elite, top-tier athletes the additional risk of getting COVID again vs. getting vaccinated (and disrupting training) prior to the games is actually a choice (again, provided those people will get vaccinated in general once the Games are over and training can be disrupted). Like, I get that argument.

I know there's at least one US male swimmer in that category (and he's already said he's getting vaccinated after he's done competing). I don't know what the numbers are, but if folks didn't have COVID and weren't on the younger age of the spectrum (i.e. anyone younger than 18 when vaccinations weren't opened until likely too close to the games -- May/June), then I agree with you...

 

I don’t think they should be able to compete. But on the bright side 84% vaccination rate

 

I agree. Not vaccinated? Don't go. Simple as that, and all the arguments about disrupting training are just BS IMO. Getting the vaccine would mean two days of downtime at most for almost all of them.

 

^^^^^

What she said.

And even if they had it before they should gotten vaccinated since while reinfection rates so far have been low, infection + vaccination gives mostly the highest protection possible right now.

 

I've lived long enough to see the Olympics swamped by terrorist attacks and boycotts. A plague-ridden event definitely comes in behind Munich, but maybe ahead of Atlanta and the 80 and 84 boycotts.

 

100%. The opening ceremony was on in the locker room at my gym this morning and it was depressing, not uplifting. It felt all wrong, just like having these Olympics feels to most of us. Wrong.

I have Peacock @Luke02 but I haven't looked at the Olympic channel yet. Mostly I like to watch running and swimming.

 

Does peacock have all the events?

 

Unsurprisingly, like every year, the NBC Olympics website has just a terrible schedule lookup -- and it seems to say there's a LOT of non-Olympic programming on Peacock, so I have no idea where some of the events tonight (like, say, Men's Gymnastics!) are going to be running...

 

BBC and Eurosport have the coverage here in the UK. Between the two they usually do a good job.

 

the US athletes have no excuse, they have access to the vaccine they should get vaccinated, they should be required to do so

 

@Rylo Ken Oh come now how you cannot loved the 84 Summer Olympics especially how McDonald's got absolutely destroyed due to the US winning just about everything thanks to the boycott therefore they lost their shirt in giveaways. Heck poor Krustyburger almost went out of business:



In all seriousness that might been the greatest USA Olympic team ever. The names just speak for themselves. Carl Lewis. Mary Lou Retton. Edwin Moses. Cheryl Miller. And most likely the greatest non professional men's team ever which was not only Jordan's coming out party to the world but also the first time the Rockets and especially the Trailblazers went "Ummmmmm yeah we might have messed up here!".

 

sort of a side question -

does anyone know what channel is showing the women's cricket? (UK)

 

If you mean 'The Hundred' I think Sky Sport and BBC2 are showing it. Sky channel 404 has been rebranded to 'Hundred' and will be showing all the matches. I think BBC2 has selected ones but Olympics might be competing there for coverage. Check the 'Red Button' on the BBC as well.

 

Yes, the NBC site is pretty okay with the times but not where to watch it!