Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 - will they be cancelled?

It seems that there is a reasonably strong chance that the Tokyo Olympics may be cancelled. This will be have a huge impact if that is the case. It would have a huge economic impact if that happened. Also, one should not downplay the significant impact on the athletes who may have spent many years towards achieving competing in the Olympics. For some, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics might be their only chance.

maybe likely they will just have them perform in empty areas.

It is not as simple as that as there are qualifications that have been postponed at the moment.

There is also the consideration of the Olympic village as well. The cruise ship that was quarantined which turned out to be an incubator for the virus shows what could potentially happen within the village. Also, what would happen to the officials during the Olympics?

Canada and Australia have announced that they won’t be sending a team to the Tokyo Olympics if it is not postponed. In Australia’s case it would be the first summer Olympics we have not attended.

I figured Canada would pull out.

I personally can’t see how they can go ahead this year given that qualifications for the Olympics are not complete. I would expect that it will be postponed until the same time in 2021 assuming the pandemic has been controlled.

I doubt they will have them with everything else being cancelled that being said the Japanese society and culture are built for this type of situation. They don’t have to practice social distance it is ingrained in their culture and they are doing a good job of slowing down the virus. And imagine Tokyo has around 36 million people but 800 times less cases that in New York City.

In the leadup to an Olympics there are qualification games to determine who competes. Those have not been able to be completed. Similarly, athletes and swimmers generally have to reach a minimum standard and/or positions in trials. Also, there is the fact very few if any participants would have been able to train.

My bet would be a 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Another reason strengthening the case to cancel is insurance. I did hear on the radio in the United States the credit card company Discover has insurance that includes a pandemic to be reimbursed a good chunk of prepaid advertising and the like. Probably other big sponsors of the Summer Games have this coverage as well.

By cancel do you mean the next summer Olympics would be 2024? It would be interesting to see whether the insurance companies have clauses limiting their liability with respect to “acts of God” and whether a pandemic is an “act of God”.

Not clear on when next Summer Olympics would be. Another possible scenario is they could wait for 2024 but still have Japan be the host country? Everything is on the table I imagine.

For insurance coverage, this pandemic coverage costs significant additional premium. It is more standard these days for the Olympics sponsors to buy coverage for acts of terror, but it will be surprising to hear that every single sponsor did purchase coverage for a pandemic like Discover.

Olympic cities would have a minimum of 6 years’ lead time. Paris and LA were allocated the 2024 and 2028 summer Olympics. The IOC have indicated that they need 4 weeks to make a decision.

How is it ingrained in their society? My experience is they have no personal space. That is one of the things I disliked most over there. It seemed to drive them crazy when a group of Americans would stand couple of feet apart in a line. They wanted to us to bunch up.

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This pandemic being epic and extraordinary may necessitate factoring in how much is invested already by Japan. Logical to believe making allowances to be fair enough resulting in Paris being 2028 and LA being 2032 is at least a consideration albeit remote.

If you only knew all the shenanigans that go down in the olympic village.

Lets just say the condom vendor does very well. :smile:

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The Tokyo Olympics will likely be moved to 2021 or 2022 or cancelled completely. They will not change the venue for the 2024 or 2028 Olympics.

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Unfortunately condoms cover the wrong parts that transmit COVID :mask:

I believe it is quite an impressive ratio: condoms to athlete.

Moving them to 2121 is a very good plan IMO.

:running_woman:t3: