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© Thomson Reuters 2020.
Koike says 'simplified' Games may be necessary to avoid cancellation
By Jack Tarrant TOKYO©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
38 Comments
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GW
Goodluck, too funny, but I could see Japan willing to go for that, but might be hard to swing figure skating LOL!!!!
Mr Kipling
Cut it back to sports that have an Olympic medal as the highest accolade. So bye bye tennis, golf, baseball etc and drop the Paralympics..... host cities are forced to hold them as a set with the olympics as nobody really has an interest. Sorry, but its true.
Michael Machida
Simplified games means what? Keep out America, England, Australia, Russia, Spain, Brazil? That way, Japan might win something other than...table tennis?
factchecker
There's 1 simple way to have a simple 5 ring circus - hold them in Greece forever.
TrevorPeace
That barge needs a serious paint job!
carpslidy
Nobody has any idea how july-august 2020is going to go, so saying we definitely can or can't have a regular olympics next year is hearsay.
B. Jay
Who cares about the Olympics? Cancel the damn thing. What Japan is considering is to use Covid19 as an excuse to ban some countries from participating.
smithinjapan
"Holding the Olympic and Paralympic Games calls for sympathy and understanding of Tokyoites and the Japanese people,"
But not the athletes from abroad or foreign spectators, tourists, or residents.
Sorry, but I am sensing we're already seeing the beginning of a long and arduous walking back process where Koike will once again deny, obfuscate, and deflate numbers and inflate need to avoid cancellation of the Games, much like nothing else mattered until the postponement of 2020 to 2021. More blood will be on her hands, and it'll end up either being canned completely anyway, or Japan and the few nations it manages to bribe to come. Nothing short of ALL nations that would otherwise participate actually taking part will qualify it as an actual Olympics.
Bob Fosse
The Olympic barge is a perfect microcosm of the whole shebang.
Flashy showboat colors on top but just a cursory glance and it’s clearly a rusty brown piece of junk and that’s just above the waterline...
Bugle Boy of Company B
Will probably be relieved to know they have more (enough) time to prepare.
Pukey2
Japan could be bankrupt by then.
kurisupisu
Koike has to rid Tokyo of the virus first before some parody of the Games can be held..
Jandworld
What a photo!
The down to earth brushcutter ( kusakariki in local speech ) makes it into the lofty world of politics.
Jimizo
Figure skating is in the Winter Olympics as far as I know. Also, figure skating is not a sport. It is nonsensical preening with silly costumes.
I’d argue that football shouldn’t be in the Olympics because we already have more important football competitions. Baseball is a sport with limited appeal as it is played in few countries.
redelmotalking
Really which athlete would want a medal from the "simplified" corona Games? Just do it properly or cancel it. And concentrate all resources on Japan's recovery post pandemic.
Alfie Noakes
That's a lot more than some, by all accounts. The LDP bet the house on the Olympics and lost; many companies borrowed money to refurbish hotels, ryokan, restaurants and the like in the hope of surfing the Olympic tourism boom. Now they're completely fecked.
noriahojanen
Quite many qualified athletes have been forced to retire or stay in limbo due to the virus-led mass cancellation or delays. Their performance peak is short-lived. Only a top few (mostly in professional status) are super-rich while vast majority athletes are struggling to make ends meet. Fine, if you claim that they are categorized as "non-essential." I feel like standing by their side in support of event openings in whatever format.
Mirchy
It will be like Olympic games in prison camp...
sf2k
The world will not be recovered this year or the next so it's already a loss.
Also it's the Beijing games again in 2022, who would want to support that? Pass
China is a real blight on the world, no way we all just forget about it. A games there just enables their tyranny not loosen it as was the idea way back in 2008. Didn't happen. It got worse
albaleo
I wonder what the people of Athens think about that?
Goodlucktoyou
@jefflee.
just judo, figure skating, women’s soccer and baseball.
Luddite
Cancel it. Stop pouring money into this white elephant.
Alexandre T. Ishii
"For that, we need to rationalize what needs to be rationalized and simplify what needs to be simplified."
Hmm, this English expression is kind of puzzle, she is thinking of Tokyo and pandemic is the world, I can't simplify and how can she?
Bugle Boy of Company B
Exactly. I suggested the same thing in January or so.
But this talk of simplifying things is the first step in canceling them altogether.
Noriyon73
Geez. Couldn't someone at least have spray painted the barge white, black, or consult a graffiti artist to make it presentable during the daytime? Even the emblems of the athletics and venues would have looked better.
itsonlyrocknroll
"Holding the Olympic and Paralympic Games calls for sympathy and understanding of Tokyoites and the Japanese people," Koike told reporters.
"For that, we need to rationalize what needs to be rationalized and simplify what needs to be simplified."
Gibberish, gobbledygook.
Billions have been invested from Japan hard pressed tax payers. To make attention seeking statements without providing any detail into the economic repercussions is vacuous and irresponsible.
Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike has a single agenda, re-election.
JeffLee
Athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, weightlifting.
That's all you need.
Mirai Hayashi
WTH is a "simplified" Olympics? Holding the game in Ueno park in front of a hundred spectators?
I wouldn't mind seeing a Tokyo2024, but that would be very expensive. The cost of rebranding of the merchandise and logos alone from Tokyo 2020 to Tokyo 2024 would be in the billions. Secondly, it would become a whole separate event that businesses and vendors would have to prepare for all over again, four years from now. Businesses need a return on investment from what they spent for Tokyo 2020, or some will be in danger of bankruptcy.
Goodlucktoyou
From my research, SARS CoV-2 will be a severe advanced version of seasonal influenza. It will swap and mutate from southern to northern hemispheres.
until we understand fully, 2024 is the best option.
Politicians to save face, or keep related salaries is not in the best interests of japan.
2024 Tokyo Olympics and 2025 Osaka Expo. The world needs this.
garymalmgren
The Yomiuri, citing government and organizing committee sources, said making Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests mandatory for all spectators -- in addition to athletes and staff -- and limiting movement in and out of the athletes village were among the options Japan would discuss with the IOC.
Now, one problem is that a test today means you are clear today.
It doesn't guarantee that you will be clear tomorrow. Or the day after.
The US navy is now testing everyone every 5 days (on some vessels).
Another problem is, what is meant by "staff"?
And finally,what do you do with contact sports like Judo, wrestling and so on?
gary
GW
Like I said in another 2020 thread, I think we are at a 50:50 chance at best now...….
Victor
Here's my proposal. Tokyo 2024, Paris 2028, LA 2032.
noriahojanen
I want to put a priority on concerns/wills of participating athletes who seek honor in the Games (and avoid health hazard).
A proposal is to diversify locations even out of Tokyo across the entire country in order to avoid big crowds. Though this may breach the Olympics' "city host" principle, I think it more plausible under the crisis.