Tokyo as a “huge gift”: The EM was amazing, the Olympics are a must

Thousands of athletes travel the world to attend the Tokyo Olympics. After the European Football Championship, the next questionable major event is coming up, after all without a spectator. The athletes share the skepticism, but are still looking forward to their competitions. For good reasons.

No spectators. Quarantine after arrival, departure no later than 48 hours after your own competition. Leave the hotel only for training and that under supervision, only with your own driver and strictly shielded. Eat only in certain restaurants. No sightseeing, no walks, no free time management, no spontaneous meetings with other athletes.

Nadine Apetz will experience the climax of her career.

(Photo: imago images / PanoramiC)

This is not the scenario of an end-of-time epic, but the reality that the athletes can expect at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Summer games that had to be postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but which will now take place from July 23rd to August 8th. With hard bandages. And yet most athletes really want to be there. Rejections such as from tennis stars, golf and basketball idols are out of the question for her: “I’ve worked for it for five years, apart from all the years that I had been boxing before,” says Nadine Apetz ntv.de. Your boxing weight class will be Olympic for the first time: “I wanted to quit competitive sport in 2016 and extended it especially for this opportunity, that should be my big career highlight. Especially after the last very tough year, which was motivational and mental was very difficult, the greatest reward is to be here now. “

Gymnast Elisabeth Seitz is already experiencing her third Olympic Games and yet she calls the event in Tokyo on ZDF a “huge gift”. “I am very grateful that these games can take place.” Rower Richard Schmidt has already won Olympic gold with the Germany eight, but he also tells ZDF: “Fortunately, the games are taking place at all.”

“IOC won’t let the athletes down”

They are all united by the relief that the competitions are being held. They all share the hope that the games will not become a driver of the pandemic. And that the balancing act between the sports festival and the displeasure of the Japanese population succeeds. The majority are against hosting the Olympic Games in the midst of the pandemic, only 22 percent in the host country are in favor of it. But their opinion is not heard by the International Olympic Committee or the Japanese Organizing Committee. The games are played through. Quite different than planned, but with around 11,000 athletes traveling to Japan, with thousands of supervisors, with VIPs, for whom the spectator ban does not apply of course, for many media professionals, with volunteers.

IOC President Thomas Bach presents it as a gift: “The IOC won’t let the athletes down.” More money was invested in order to be able to host the games a year later. “We can confidently say that we have minimized the risk for these games,” affirmed Bach. It sounds pathetic and caring. And in fact, it corresponds to the wishes of the athletes who, like Apetz, have been preparing for years. They want to make it onto the big stage once, prove themselves to the world public once, represent their sport, be celebrated and revered once. Olympia, that’s the dream. Olympia, that’s the high point of your career. World and European championships, all well and good, but nothing against the Olympics.

Being locked in as a routine

For their dream of the Olympics, the athletes accept many restrictions. They accept almost prison-like conditions, are not allowed to move freely, have to stay in their hotels and later in the room in the Olympic Village. Diver Patrick Hausding described it after the qualifying competitions that were held in Tokyo: “I’ve never been cooped up like this in my entire life. I lived on the tenth floor. There was no balcony or outside space there, the window in the hotel was one Disk that could not be opened. ” He also told Deutschlandfunk: “We were only allowed to go down to the reception when it was in the direction of the jump hall. And in the hall we were also asked to go back in. So you weren’t allowed to spend your time outside or stand still so that they really did no one escapes through a gap. ”

This is what boxer Apetz is currently experiencing, the 35-year-old and her team have already arrived in Japan and will be in Miyazaki, on the southern island of Kyushu, until July 20: “Unfortunately, we are locked up again is almost routine Most of the training camps last year were in corona bubbles. ” The situation is tough: “We have a beautiful park in front of the door, we are right by the sea, but we are not even allowed to go jogging, let alone to the beach. The ceiling is more likely to fall on your head than when you are can go for a walk in the afternoon or have a coffee. “

Financial dependence is great

They accept it – for the Olympics. At least athletes who are otherwise not in the spotlight, in whom big money does not rule. Like tennis, where half the elite will be missing, or football, where Germany’s coach Stefan Kuntz has to deal with the clubs and plays with just 18 out of 22 possible players. In contrast to the European Football Championship, which has just ended, where all clubs naturally let their players go. To a tournament that was spread across the continent, attended by crowds, at which the pandemic should back off the UEFA request. Big money is distributed differently in football.

It’s not just the feeling that the Olympics are the most important thing in the world for most athletes, it’s also the money. The games have long been marketed by the IOC in such a way that there are dependencies. The pressure is great, only those who perform on the really big world stage get the good offers from the sponsors. Those who want and have to live from their sport bow to dictation. Careers are based on the Olympic cycle. Canoe ace Ronald Rauhe, for example, hung on for a year to be able to participate again, actually the 13-time world champion and four-time Olympic medalist would have wanted to end his career in 2020.

But it’s not just about the money for the athletes. Olympia is a billion dollar business, also for the IOC, Japan and the sports associations worldwide. Sponsors are where the attention is. 60 companies in Japan alone wanted to pay around three million euros. Losses caused by the pandemic cannot be compensated. TV rights, from Europe there are more than 400 million euros from Discovery, in the USA the broadcaster NBC is buying the broadcasting rights around one billion euros. Sports associations that benefit from the IOC’s income, around 90 percent, are passed on to sub-organizations in each country.

Without this money, it would have been difficult even for some regional associations in Germany in the midst of the pandemic. Construction costs for the arenas and accommodations that the organizers have to cope with. The games are now expected to cost around 13 billion euros, another 20 percent more than it would have been last year. In addition, there is no income from fans who are not allowed to be there. $ 815 million were reportedly budgeted for this.

The discrepancy to the European Football Championship

There will be expensive games, other games, silent games. A backdrop that Nadine Apetz is used to: “We often box in front of empty stands. Even at European and World Championships, usually only the remaining teams are in the audience and cheer,” explains the member of Athleten Deutschland, but also admits: ” It would of course have been nice to experience the stark contrast and the feeling of boxing in front of a huge crowd. ”

Max Hartung is someone who knows this feeling. The President of Athleten Germany finds the exclusion from the public “understandable”. The fact that it was completely different at the European Football Championship, that more than 60,000 spectators were allowed to attend the semi-finals and the final in London, does not make him jealous. “I’m more concerned with the pictures, with the many fans and the many infections too. I think it’s reasonable that it is not handled that way in Japan,” he said after the decision.

Meanwhile, IOC President Bach emphasizes the “billions of people around the globe” who will “watch the games on television and the Internet”. He is certain that the games will have “high sporting value” despite the conditions. “As with every Olympia, new stars will be born, new legends will be created.” Then all the restrictions, all the waiver and five years of preparation for Apetz and Co. would have paid off. Whether the Japanese people also see it that way will certainly also depend on the development of the pandemic.

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