
Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year - doppp
https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/olympics-japan-will-hold-olympics-by-summer-2021-at-latest-pm-shinzo-abe-says
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jaywalk
More so than the games themselves in July, you have to consider all of the
training and qualifiers that the athletes must participate in leading up to
the games. All of that has been put on hold, making it impossible to properly
prepare for the games even if the virus were to somehow be totally eliminated
by July.

There was no other possible outcome.

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agumonkey
also a ton of investments for events, tourism that may or may not be doable
months later.

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rangibaby
Japan’s preferred date in October would be much more pleasant for athletes,
spectators, and tourists, but there was a lot of pressure from US broadcasters
to schedule it for July.

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Ididntdothis
Why is July for them so important? Football season?

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slg
July is after the NBA and NHL finals. It is before the NFL preseason. MLB is
at the midpoint of their long season when it is late enough that the
excitement of the new year has warn off and it is too early for the playoff
race to reinvigorate fans. July is generally the slowest sports month in the
US.

Meanwhile in October, the NBA and NHL both start their seasons. The NFL and
college football are both going strong. MLB is in the middle of their
playoffs. It is one of the busier sports months.

This is also just the sports calendar. Other aspects like the school schedule
and traditional TV calendars also point to July as an ideal month.

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m4rtink
Not only are Olympics no longer the festival of human achievement but lets
have commercial interest dictate when they should take place, even if it makes
no sense for the host country. Perfect.

(Anyone who visited Japan at that time of year will tell you the weatjer is
pretty brutal, with very high temperateure _and_ high 90%+ humidity.)

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thelean12
Why the negativity? Would you prefer to ignore entertainment context and only
think of the weather in the host country?

Commercial interest has a direct correlation to the number of people who tune
in. Even if money wasn't a factor, the number of people watching should be a
core metric.

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mhh__
Had to happen: If they tried to have it, there would have been no crowd and
all the athletes would get it like wildfire (The Olympic Village has a lot of
Tinder activity, at least).

That doesn't even account for the sad reality that some athletes can't go due
to the virus (already). At least three of the South Korean Fencing team (Very
likely medal contenders) are confirmed positive, for example.

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jbay808
Wouldn't the fencing team have recovered fully by this summer?

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mackey
There was at least another olympian who tested positive that said he has had
extreme fatigue even weeks later and he has lost a lot of strength.

A lot of constant training required to be an olympian.

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benatkin
Unlike other postponement announcements, many of which are cynical attempts to
prevent people from demanding refunds, this feels legitimate.

I can see it being well-contained in Japan in a year, with strict restrictions
on entering Japan. I think the advice is gonna be for people who want to watch
or participate in the olympics to go there about a month early so they can
isolate first, and longer if they're in a country that doesn't have it under
control. It's through _strict border control_ that Japan has been able to keep
it from spreading as much as other places, and I'm sure it's going to be less
convenient for people going to the Olympics. I'm just guessing at what it will
look like from the perspective of people going. If they go very early,
athletes will need to do a lot of training in Japan, but I assume it must have
been common for olympic athletes to arrive early and train in the host country
in past olympics. Some may even want to travel from a high-risk country to a
moderate-risk country first and spend at least two weeks there first before
going to Japan. There will probably be people who won't endure the
inconvenience and won't go to the olympics, but it will be much better
attended than if they tried to hold the olympics in Japan late this summer.

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rvz
Pretty much expected and no surprise there due to the seriousness of the
COVID-19 outbreak made this completely impractical to carry on the Olympics.
Postponement was the right decision.

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jimbob45
Are they even still drug testing right now? If I’m an elite athlete, I’m
hammering those PEDs every day in this quarantine.

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C19is20
PED? Only three letters and you spelled TUE wrong.

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rwmurrayVT
I need SARMs, SERMS, and I'm mainlining test e. Don't worry guys it's for
therapeutic use.

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KwanEsq
Off-topic, but is anyone aware of many English-language news publications
respecting the switch to family given name ordering? The only one I know of is
the Economist.

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aikinai
Just this week I saw a good article about this[0].

[0] [https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/20/media/japan-abe-shinzo-
name-i...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/20/media/japan-abe-shinzo-name-intl-
hnk/index.html)

~~~
KwanEsq
Thanks, that was interesting and illuminating.

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laurieg
Glad to see the safety of athletes and the public is being protected.

I wonder why Japan seems to have such low numbers even though they had
coronavirus very early as well as many cases from the cruise ship.

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afarrell
I conjecture that since there is a cultural norm of wearing masks when sick,
everyone had masks at home. Because of this, they put the masks on when
apparently-healthy to avoid getting sick. Because of this, the asymptomatic
people didn't spread the virus nearly as much.

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umanwizard
Masks also help you avoid getting the virus if you’re not infected. It’s a
complete myth that they don’t; literally all research points in the same
direction.

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GuB-42
Yes, if we somehow manage to get a massive supply of masks, I expect all
officials to do a 180 turn and ask everyone to wear them.

The problem now is that we don't have enough, so we downplay their
effectiveness, to limit panic buying and to make sure that people who need
them the most get them. It is a perfectly understandable, though a little
dishonest strategy. Also, we don't to give people a false sense of security,
being close to someone with a mask is still worse than being far from someone
without a mask.

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kijin
You don't even need to wear a N95 mask, or wear it according to the book.
Anything that can reduce the number of virus particles you are exposed to when
someone nearby sneezes, or when you touch a surface that was recently sneezed
on and then touch your face, can be helpful _when millions of people do the
same._

A T-shirt over your mouth or a handkerchief tied around your head might not
protect you personally. But if enough people wear them, even a small reduction
of viral load in the community will compound over time and result in a
meaningful difference in the total number of cases and the load it puts on a
nation's health system. That's what ultimately matters, and that's what the
Japanese and Koreans understand.

Any country that has the guts to order their citizens to stay home should also
have the sense to order them to cover their faces with something substantial
whenever they have a valid reason to be outside, e.g. going to work.

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rurban
What they didn't write, is that there will be no Olympic village next year
then. They already sold all the new apartments. And now they have add
contracts to all those buyers to let the private appartment for 3 weeks to the
athletes. Or something like this. Hotels? In Tokyo during the high Olympic
season? Tents?

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onetimemanytime
Is anything insured? A lot of companies bet their farm and then some, on this
happening. Not to mention the countries, including the host.

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cltsang
We need to let Japan know that this is not their fault.

It's ingrained in Japanese culture that they often put too much pressure on
themselves. They might think if they had put extra 120% effort, the Olympics
would have gone as scheduled. But this is not on them.

Although it's only speculation, we wouldn't want another case of heartbreaking
suicide[0] because of a Japanese blaming himself/herself too much.

[0] [https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/japan-
confirms-t...](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/japan-confirms-
three-more-citizens-evacuated-from-wuhan-test-positive-for-coronavirus)

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BurningCycles
Very anectdotal, but the three Japanese persons I know have told me that
people in Japan are generally negative towards holding an Olympics and think
it's just a waste of resources.

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jasonv
This is a very common "populist" view when the Olympics are held locally...
true here in the US when the Olympics were in LA and Atlanta.

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magduf
In my opinion, it's rational (which surprises me that it would be "populist"
since populist thinking is rarely rational).

The Olympics really are a terrible waste of effort and resources for the host
nation, and the host nation rarely, if ever, gets a positive return on it.
Mostly, it seems only to serve to increase the prestige of some head-of-state,
nothing more. In reality, it costs an enormous amount of money to build
facilities that are only used once and then go to waste. The world would be
better off designating two separate, permanent Olympics facilities, one for
summer and one for winter, and just reusing those every 4 years.

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trianglem
The final goal of ever endeavor is not always profits.

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magduf
Then what exactly is the goal? If you're not better off after doing something
than before doing something, then why would you do it? Hosting the Olympics
doesn't help a host nation in any measurable way that I've ever seen, though
it does seem to increase the profits and prestige for some national leaders,
the IOC, and of course other companies that stand to profit from the event as
another poster here pointed out. I don't see how that helps the people of the
nation at all.

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chrisweekly
Good call!

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nine_k
(Obligatory joke:) So, the events of _Akira_ are not going to happen.

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Legogris
Oh, they're still branded Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games. Maybe Akira is set in
2025.

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defterGoose
So glad that Dick Pound finally got in on the action!

