Tale of 2 cities: Sapporo likes race move; Tokyo not much

Everything Koike is saying has nothing to do with the athletes themselves. Yet she forgets that without the athletes there wouldn't be an Olympics in the first place.

What happened in Doha woke up the IOC (finally) about the hazards that they are facing with the Olympics in Tokyo and they stepped in, even after they had said everything was going along smoothly.

Looking forward to seeing the races from Sapporo!

A report released last year by the national government's Board of Audit said Japan is likely to spend $25 billion overall to prepare for the games. This is public money, except for the $5.6 billion in the privately funded operating budget.

Even better reason to spread the games out over the entire country! WE the taxpayers outside of Tokyo are "spending" a hell of a lot to support these games, we all should benefit!

The trigger was probably the recent world track championships in Doha, Qatar, where 28 of 68 starters failed to finish the women's marathon and 18 of 73 men failed to complete the course. The races were run at midnight in 38 degree C (100 degree F) heat.

Unbelievable!

As for the Tokyo games, things keep on changing after they've won the bid. Very sneaky. How about having some events in Fukushima then? They used Fukushima has a victimhood tactic.

Pheidippides died when he finished running from Marathon to Athens, on the summer day of Sep. 12, 490 B.C. One hopes that modern runners of the marathon do not have to sacrifice their lives in order to complete the race. If that means moving the event to the cooler climate of Sapporo, or keeping it in Tokyo but holding the event at a cooler time of year, so be it.

Go Sapporo!

Hey, now that’s a very smart idea! I’m glad that this could very well be implemented, because of the heat waves of Tokyo has been having. Good to see some nice positive alternatives being implemented for something like this.

Pheidippides died when he finished running from Marathon to Athens, on the summer day of Sep. 12, 490 B.C. 

I followed exactly that route and wasn't even short of breath on arriving in Athens. In fact, I had a nice souvlaki as soon as I got off the bus.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to spread the wealth around Japan would we? We MUST keep everything in Tokyo right? These are my olympics, not yours sapporo. We are Japan!"

sheesh. it's one sport out of hundreds. Tokyo could spare a few to other areas and allow them some exposure. You know, encourage tourists to visit OTHER lesser known areas in Japan, to support tourism?

"Sapporo, which hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics, has expressed interest in bidding for the 2030 Winter Games, and this could be a first step."

They may well get it, since the IOC is literally begging countries to take the Olympics on for future bids, and most countries don't want to touch it. But then again, Japan wants to host everything these days.