Disappointed athletes brace for crowd-free Tokyo Games

No fans=no atmosphere=a waste of time!

Personally if it had been me, I would have bowed out from the beginning

> Aly RustomToday  07:56 am JST

Personally if it had been me, I would have bowed out from the beginning

I would guess that "giving up" is not one of the characteristics of a world class athlete.

That's why you're commenting on here, and they are on their way to Tokyo.

I hear them. I feel the same about teaching. When I teach, I teach for my students, but I also teach WITH my students. It really is not much fun without an audience. The students make it happen. I'm sure it's also true with these athletes. I know the IOC is arrogant and won't listen to anyone by themselves, but one idea might be to incorporate crowd cheer sound effects. They did that in the US during the early months of the pandemic.

It was a weak decision after months of dithering.

Outdoor events such as rowing, archery, triathlon could have easily had a small audience by lottery (as they had suggested).

If it's not safe for 5,000 people to attend an outdoor arena that can hold 60,000, then it's definitely not safe to get on a packed Yamanote line train.

Yet, the tax paying Japanese have paid for these stadiums and can’t use them.

They have also paid for tickets which may not all be completely refunded!

However, come what may,they’ll be obediently riding those trains on Monday morning