Sunday 25th July 2021
Another Olympic fever in Tokyo
The imaginary games
By Michael Wilkening, Tokyo
Instead of euphoric fans there is emptiness. Instead of unreserved anticipation, taking a temperature every day and checking the range of motion dominate the day in the “Olympic Bubble”. They are games where you can only guess what it would really be like in Tokyo.
One can only guess what euphoria there could be in Tokyo if the Covid-19 pathogen had not locked out the people of this metropolis. The streets around the Olympic Stadium are lined with people waving to the passing buses. The Japanese take photos of the people who are allowed to enter the arena. You wish the journalists from all over the world a lot of fun, there will be short dialogues through the barricades. When the 32nd Modern Olympic Games opened in Tokyo, there was a previously unknown type of Olympic tourism, although spectators are excluded – a bizarre situation. In front of the arena, there will also be demonstrations against the games elsewhere. The group of Olympic opponents is clearly inferior to the enthusiastic group in terms of size, although not in terms of volume.
Presumably Risato Tani will be proved right. “We love the Olympic Games, so we are sad that they have to take place here under these circumstances,” said the Japanese TV journalist. A few days before the opening ceremony, the majority of the Japanese had spoken out against the event, but that would not last, Tani predicted: “We are enthusiastic and when it starts we will sit in front of the TV and cheer.”
The games in Tokyo will (must) be remembered on all sides as those of the necessary imagination. The majority of the people in Tokyo imagine being in the arenas, while the athletes imagine that they are being supported by millions, maybe even billions of people worldwide in front of the TV sets, tablets and smartphones. The games in 2021 will largely take place in the imaginary.
25,000 people – and many more helpers
The real concern about the virus is. In order to make the competitions as safe as possible, the organizers are making a gigantic effort. More than 25,000 people are at the games as athletes, journalists or officials. Around half of them have to undergo a corona test every day, the rest every four days at the latest. Using a smartphone app, all participants have to transmit data on their state of health on a daily basis. You are only allowed to move freely in Tokyo 14 days after entering the country, provided that no illness has occurred. Before entering an event location, the body temperature is also determined with a temperature screen, the hands must be disinfected. Police, security services and countless volunteers handle the security measures – the army of helpers is even larger than that of the participants.
The “Olympic bubble” is supposed to be impermeable, but that does not work in all places. The dimensions are too gigantic to prevent any exit. Again and again journalists pass public roads to get from the stops of the transport system to the sports facilities, they pass children playing and thus catch a glimpse of the city that they are initially only allowed to see through bus windows – at least in theory. The smartphone app, in which it is stored whether and from when the participants can move freely and, for example, use public transport, has a weakness. If the installation is incorrect, you will be “unlocked” shortly after arrival. Few people make use of this mistake, the majority deal with the peculiarity of these games in a prudent way. People learned to deal with the pandemic since last spring, the discipline is great.
Fan park is there, but closed
Behind the arena for sport climbing and the stadium where 3×3 basketball is played is the fan park, where the sponsors present themselves, but above all the spectators should have the opportunity to get themselves in the mood for celebration. Not far away and within walking distance is the beach volleyball stadium. The youthful heart of the Olympic Games could have beat here. Tokyo and the games should be modern, enthusiastic and framed by groovy beats. The reality is different. The fan park is closed and the trend sports competitions take place without spectators in the stands. The colorful pictures that the IOC wanted to use to advertise itself around the world have not been presented here since Saturday. The pandemic prevented it.
Dusan Bulut regrets that, he describes it briefly as “shit”, but the circumstances that have restricted the world and Tokyo for a year and a half do not change the enthusiasm for the competition. Bulut has won the World Cup four times with Serbia, the most important competition in 3×3 basketball. He is the superstar of his sport, has already achieved a lot and has a few big advertising contracts in his pocket. The enthusiasm for the games in front of empty ranks does not suffer. “This is the biggest tournament I’ve played,” said the 35-year-old. The first games of the Olympic tournament are behind him and his statements underline a fact that crystallized in the first few days. For the athletes, the attraction of the games has not suffered due to the external circumstances. The athletes regret the lack of spectators and the restrictions on freedom of movement, but the strength of the five ring competitions has not suffered.
In the first days of the Olympic Games, Tokyo, a metropolis with just under 14 million inhabitants, is calm and looks sleepy, the pulse seems to have almost died out. But it is not the case that people fled the games or barricaded themselves in their own four walls. The government has put Navy Holiday and Sports Day on July 22nd and 23rd in commemoration of the 1964 Olympic Games, which also took place in Tokyo. Presumably so that the Olympic Games can develop in peace. After the weekend the metropolis will wake up. This will not affect the course of the competitions. But possibly the Olympia transport system if the traffic swells to its usual size.
.