tokyo 2020 olympics

Pot-shots politically driven; Tokyo Games to go ahead: Pound

36 Comments
By Ossian Shine

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Thomson Reuters 2021.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

36 Comments
Login to comment

Here's the Bunshun interview in which Pound claims that "Even if PM Suga cancels the Olympics we're still going to hold them."

https://bunshun.jp/articles/-/45703

Unbelievable.

16 ( +16 / -0 )

Sick Pound sounds like he is as stupid as he is arrogant and selfish.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

I have two comments so I will break them into two posts. And no Pound: my criticism of your narcissistic arrogance has nothing to do with politics.

Japan needs to watch out! The IOC is now changing direction and setting the situation up so that if anything does happen it can blame Japan, the Japanese government, and the people here.

"The thing that has puzzled me... the state of emergency they have declared," Pound added. "It's called an emergency except all the restaurants and bars in Ginza are still open."

This is the first time we have heard a statement like this from the IOC. Previous statements were praising Japan's handling of the virus and fully backing the Japanese Government's approach with full confidence that the games can be held safely. This is a departure from that narrative.

Suga and Koike: How does it feel to get stabbed in the back by your IOC masters? Pound just took a 25cm shank and plunged it right next to your spine.

The leadership of the IOC is narcissistic, cunning, arrogant and sick. Be careful Japan!!

12 ( +12 / -0 )

Comment two is to completely deconstruct Pound's lunacy. He knows nothing of Japan and how the country functions based on his statements. I have lived here and done business here for 25 years. I am not sure how many times Pound has come to Japan but I would imagine he has been driven around, stayed in 5 star hotels, and was wined and dined using my tax money.

"People get spooked around Olympic time," he said. "In Los Angeles in 1984 there was all kinds of earnest speculation about the number of Olympic athletes in LA who were going to die during the Games as a result of the smog.

"In Rio (2016) it was Zika, not withstanding it wasn't the season and wasn't the place for Zika... all kinds of people were taking that to heart.

HEY POUND: You dumb piece of work!! Let me clue you in on something: The risk of Covid-19 far exceeds the risk of smog or Zika. The global economy was not shut down due to Zika. The number of deaths and cases with extreme morbidity far exceeds Zika.

"The government and public health authorities are in constant contact as are we at the IOC and the science-based conclusions are all of this can happen without any significant risk," he said.

HEY POUND: Please openly and transparantly release your risk assessment which quantifies each risk, outlines the potential severith (in economic and medical terms) and clearly states how you disposition each risk. Open the full assessment to the medical professionals and scientists in Japan to review and criticize where it is due. It is already quite obvious some key risks have not been addressed such as how to isolate the 10's of thousands of support personnel coming.

"If you're a Japanese citizen or resident there are all kinds of things you can do that we know are effective in prevention of spreading the virus: social distancing, the masks and so on. And for that matter staying away. Don't go to Tokyo.

POUND - ARE YOU SERIOUS?! I am a Resident of Japan and I run a business here which requires travel between prefectures. What about people in Tokyo?!?! Is everyone supposed to leave the city so you can have your games? Are you fricking kidding me?!?! Selfishness to the extreme! Also you are aware in your position, that events are being held in other prefectures? Are you truly that stupid or are you intenionally being obtuse?

"All these mitigate in favor of going ahead. If we are relying on the scientific basis for all this I am onside with that and I support going ahead with the Games unless there is some huge unforeseen happening that nobody presently anticipates."

POUND - It is obvious you think we are all stupid and you think the Japanese people are stupid. The Japanese people are not dumb enough to buy into your bull&%$ and that is why there is a super majority of Japanese who want the games either postponed or cancelled.

You sound like a colonialist of times past dictating to East Asia the terms of their existence. The worst and most arrogant type.

10 ( +11 / -1 )

Don't go to Tokyo.

And the millions who live in Tokyo?You would perhaps like them to barricade themselves in their homes for the duration of the games? Or perhaps you would advise them to drop everything and evacuate to some other part of the country, when there is a SoE in force and people are being asked not to cross prefectural borders?

The arrogance of the man is mind-blowing.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

What about 80% of the population not wanting the Games? Is that political posturing?

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Some pot-shots being levelled at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are "political posturing" former IOC vice president Dick Pound told Reuters on Wednesday, insisting the beleaguered extravaganza should and would go ahead in July.

This is wrong on a couple of levels.

First, objections to holding the games aren't "pot shots", they are based on real problems that Japan is facing thanks to the IOC insisting on holding the games in the middle of a pandemic. If someone complains that an event poses a significant danger of spreading a disease that will kill people, they are not taking "pot shots", they are expressing legitimate concerns that they have every right to expect those in authority will take seriously rather than just trying to brush them off.

Second, the only political posturing going on is by those like Pound who are desperately trying to force these games down the Japanese public's throats in the face of their increasingly desperate pleas to make them go away. He is the one trying to create a political narrative here that ignores reality, not the people who are opposed to this. I mean look at this BS he is spouting:

"People get spooked around Olympic time," he said. "In Los Angeles in 1984 there was all kinds of earnest speculation about the number of Olympic athletes in LA who were going to die during the Games as a result of the smog.

This isn't a relevant comparison for reasons that should be obvious enough that I don't have to spell them out.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

"Even if PM Suga cancels the Olympics we're still going to hold them."

Thanks @Alfie, I was just gonna post that.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

"The Japanese when they take something on they are very organized, very efficient and very effective in delivering it and this vaccine thing for some reason or other they haven't, and I don't know what the glitch is," he said.

Did he follow this up by commenting on how those black fellas sure can run fast?

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Everyday and every comment from the IOC leadership, they are sounding more and more like the Borg constantly repeating "resistance is futile" but we keep resisting!

8 ( +8 / -0 )

What about 80% of the population not wanting the Games? Is that political posturing?

It is when you are a dictator, anything that contradicts a dictator's view is irrelevant and posturing.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

The New England journal of medicine made a very clear point the IOC doesn't have a plan and the little it does have is not based on science or anything else.

One thing pointed out make it even clearer as to why it is insane to have the Olympics now!

Last year when the games were postponed there were around 800 cases of covid in Japan and 350,000 worldwide.

Today there are over 60,000 cases of covid-19 in Japan and 20 million worldwide with multiple new stronger variants.

So how is it possible that today it is somehow safer?

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Don't go to Tokyo

Dick Pound, kindly follow your own advice.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I understand how Pound and the rest of the IOC leadership must be frustrated.

All their paid PR and Fake information spreading isn't working.

So that must really bother them.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Pound is a disgrace.

He has been lurking around the crooked IOC gravy train for many decades, taking whatever money comes his way. 6 star hotels, no doubt caviar and champagne daily, lifestyle of a superstar. He knows no other means of making money than hanging around the sleazy IOC, just like Coe, Bach and Coates. Old, slimy politicians who think they are more important than entire nations.

Cancel the olympic trainwreck NOW. Ban Pound, Coe, Coates and Bach for LIFE from Japan.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Today there are over 60,000 cases of covid-19 in Japan and 20 million worldwide with multiple new stronger variants.

So how is it possible that today it is somehow safer?

That’s the clearest and most sensible argument for cancellation I’ve heard yet.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

"The Japanese when they take something on they are very organized, very efficient and very effective in delivering it and this vaccine thing for some reason or other they haven't, and I don't know what the glitch is," he said.

Perhaps the "glitch" is that his beliefs of Japanese organization and efficiency are based on a false narrative rooted in Showa-era styles that no longer exist.

Did he not realize this when Tokyo sent him the faxes regarding the original logo design or the plans for the original stadium?

Well, if he still wants to enjoy the effectiveness of Japan's scrapped contact tracing app for foreign fans, athletes, and staff, I'm sure he has the clout to somehow get a download of it.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

The man is not word any attention. He is a corrupt shameful figure stopping at nothing outrageous.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

So it seems that Japan has now once again become a country ruled by and Emperor, just this time it is an imperial triumvirate of the IOC Bach, Coates and Pound!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

This decision to press on with the Olympics has everything to do with “political posturing.” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (mostly) and national government LDP leaders (somewhat) need a symbolically successful Olympic host effort to mitigate the damage their pandemic mismanagement might likely have on their political careers/parties. It’s that simple.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

He has dedicated much of his life to anti doping in sports, not just the Olympics. 

And has repeatedly been in trouble for making up data and unfounded accusations. Not a particularly trustworthy mouthpiece.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

He and others like him would do themselves a service by reading the article from the New England Journal of Medicine before spewing their ignorant a..comments. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2108567?query=featured_home

4 ( +4 / -0 )

@Alfie. Wow. Thanks for sharing

4 ( +4 / -0 )

The fake news and manipulation of public opinion is getting more laughable by the minute. 

Give us some examples of Olympics fake news. Just one or two is fine. Of course provable with evidence if you please.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Great men like Dicky often have allegations made about them due to their prominence

The IOC PR budget mustn't be very much if the same things are repeated over and over again.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

 very organized, very efficient and very effective in delivering it 

That was in the 1970s and 1980s. Japanese office culture mutated since, and cannot deliver on anything efficiently. Everything is process based, and changing a single protocol made in the 1980s can pretty much take years.

Also Japanese politicians themselves have no incentive to vaccinate the population, because the current companies producing the vaccines are not the politically connected ones that can promise them kick-backs or favors.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I’ve got a pounding headache reading this little sermon...

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Dick Pound is giving Japan some intense pounding on the matter.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@Fighto! Well said! Another clown from the IOC giving us lectures about arguments with no real scientific evidence. He is obviously calculating the $$$$ which will end up in his wallet. Disgraceful!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I'm not one for wasting my time normally but I'm really getting the urge to heckle the Olympic officials and athletes when they're here.

Sure, that'll help not spread the virus.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Well said Dicky Pound. The fake news and manipulation of public opinion is getting more laughable by the minute. Meanwhile in the real world Japanese are out and about as normal.

-10 ( +1 / -11 )

Dicky Pound says it as it as. Straight from the heart man devoted drug free and safe Olympics.He speaks his mind even I’ve controversial topics, he’s a man of principle. Obviously he’s noticed people trying to ruin the event and he’s determined they will continue and he would not do so unless they were safe.

-16 ( +1 / -17 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites