tokyo 2020 olympics

Bach corrects Chinese slip-up in Olympic talks; calls Tokyo best-ever prepared host city

91 Comments
By STEPHEN WADE

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If he was already unwelcome he certainly is even more so now. “The Chinese people”? Ouch.

73 ( +74 / -1 )

Bach corrected his mistake, but probably what was going on in his head was something like, "Chinese? Japanese? What's the difference?"

65 ( +67 / -2 )

“You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games," 

Thankyou Mr President. Tokyo will fight for you.

-64 ( +5 / -69 )

And how much does he earn? Unacceptable gaff.

35 ( +38 / -3 )

Bach tripped over his words while addressing his Japanese hosts, referring to the “Chinese people” rather than “Japanese people” as he spoke.

“Our common target is safe and secure games for everybody; for the athletes, for all the delegations, and most importantly also for the Chinese people -- Japanese people," Bach said, catching his mistake quickly.

Bach's comments in the briefing were interpreted from English to Japanese, but the slip was not included in the interpretation. Still, much of the Japanese media quickly reported it and there was backlash on social media.

Yes, Bach yes...........keep them coming.

Was there video evidence of this?

We need a good social media video to kick things off.

Good stuff.

21 ( +24 / -3 )

(Checks list of things the IOC could possibly do to further tarnish their image in Japan)

"OK, who had Bach referring to the hosts as Chinese people for June 13th?"

18 ( +20 / -2 )

Our common target is safe and secure games for everybody; for the athletes, for all the delegations, and most importantly also for the Chinese people -- Japanese people," 

Shows the man's true colors

24 ( +26 / -2 )

He thinks we all look alike. What a sorry creature this old old man is.

33 ( +38 / -5 )

Dazed after all his days in isolation ..

18 ( +20 / -2 )

That’s a Prince Philip-level faux pas.

And as for “best-ever prepared host city”…he must have Academy Award level acting skills to say that with a straight face.

27 ( +31 / -4 )

You'd think he'd know where he was after 2 weeks of quarantine...

Give him another 2 weeks.

21 ( +23 / -2 )

“You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games," 

What show has he been watching?

18 ( +20 / -2 )

Just when you think these people know what they are doing, you hold out hope that at least one of them does! And this on his first outing with the media? This whole Olympics thing has already turned out to better than any sitcom I could imagine. I actually don’t want it to end as each day brings more hilarious high jinx from a cast of comic geniuses.

14 ( +16 / -2 )

Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games

3 days of quarantine in a presidential suite in a 5 star hotel has done so much damage

to Bach brain, I dread to think what the outcome would have been if he had to undergo

2 weeks of quarantine like we plebs do.

25 ( +28 / -3 )

Unbelievable arrogance from this entitled politician.

Bach does not know the difference between Chinese and Japanese. Nor does he care anyway. The awful slow trainwreck will proceed, ignoring the wishes of most Japanese, and the medical professionals.

Sickening show.

25 ( +28 / -3 )

When will Japan stop using these decades old table/chair in conference rooms - looks so shabby and old style??

Notice right side to King Bach are Prince Coates and Lord Sebastian Coe from UK (he is officially awarded the title of Lord in UK) - also not one person has any paper or laptop/ipad anything in front of them - this is purely a PR photo operation to show the world how hard King Bach is working to deserve his $$$$ income?

Moderator: Sebastien Coe is not there. You are referring to IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

“You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games," 

Thankyou Mr President. Tokyo will fight for you.

Make sure to explain to him that it is in fact Tokyo and not Beijing.

17 ( +19 / -2 )

You'd think he'd know where he was after 2 weeks of quarantine...

2 weeks? Umm, no.

Try 3 days.

14 ( +18 / -4 )

2 weeks? Umm, no.

Try 3 days.

I guess he DOES need 2 weeks then to figure out he's in Japan not China..

18 ( +20 / -2 )

He had already filled in the blank for next year’s Winter Olympics.

18 ( +21 / -3 )

'Us' and 'Them', or maybe the 'Payers' and the 'Payees!'

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Bach tripped over his words while addressing his Japanese hosts, referring to the “Chinese people” rather than “Japanese people” as he spoke.

Bach can compensate the mishap by calling "Japanese people!" in Beijing for the Winter Games :)

14 ( +17 / -3 )

It's O.K. to make a mistake like that.

The Chinese athletes hotel and it's obvious failure to quarantine were probably at the front his mind.

It's not O.K. to take us for fools and lie though.

“You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games,"

The JOC, Japanese Government and Koike are all just making this stuff up on the fly. The preparations are inadequate.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

It’s the lowest insult for the Japanese to be mistaken for a Chinese.

10 ( +16 / -6 )

Moderator: Sebastien Coe is not there. You are referring to IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi.

@Mods

Thanks for clarification - my mistake.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Either Bach is absurdly intellectually challenged for a person his position and really doesn't think there's any difference between Chinese people and Japanese people, or, it was a Freudian slip and he intends to push for the 2022 Beijing Olympics even if the entire world boycotts it in response to China's genocide in the in U.A.R.

Guess money talks.

17 ( +19 / -2 )

He and his friends at the top are disgusting arrogant over entitled greedy and insulting !

Now take what you about the people of Japan bach, bach !

Stop insulting Japanese people !

18 ( +22 / -4 )

He does not even know where he is or is it becuase he has taken so much chinese money he has things mixed up in his head.

21 ( +25 / -4 )

*“See-tee-rike! “One!” *

- can we hope for “Two” ?

- “Our common target is safe and secure games for everybody; for the athletes, for all the delegations, and most importantly also for the Chinese people -- Japanese people," Bach said, catching his mistake quickly.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Bach corrects Chinese slip-up in his Olympic talks; calls Tokyo best-ever prepared host city

yeah sure let me call them the best ever prepared host city for one reason

Bach tripped over his words while addressing his Japanese hosts, referring to the “Chinese people” rather than “Japanese people” as he spoke.

cuz im racist and i show it in a freaking meeting like this lol

12 ( +13 / -1 )

Covid Olympic road show rolls on... Laughed out load at this one!

11 ( +12 / -1 )

You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games," Bach said 

After 3 days quarantine that’s a big call. Everyone was pleased he didn’t appear in the Hotel bathrobe.

18 ( +18 / -0 )

sorry.. laughed out loud!

12 ( +13 / -1 )

Best ever prepared? Yes, even those little viruses would agree if they could.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

To Bach, we all look the same -- like taxpaying peasants.

18 ( +19 / -1 )

Bach’s slumped shoulders is the 3rd photo indicate disappointment… “Does this mean I won’t be able to seeThe Great Wall”? …of Honshu?

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Bach corrects Chinese slip-up in his Olympic talks; calls Tokyo best-ever prepared host city

Now, that's a laugh! I'd like to hear what was his worst prepared city. That really is completely hysterical! If anything, prepared to fill his pocket.

10 ( +11 / -1 )

Seriously, I teach English in better looking rooms than that.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

@PSmith: Excellent article.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3524296/

Thank you

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

The guy had one job.

J-a-p-a-n.

Really should have rehearsed "the people of Japan" instead of trying say "Japanese people" and totally messing it up.

Thats even better because it includes ALL the people that are here, not just "Japanese".

11 ( +12 / -1 )

Bach tripped over his words while addressing his Japanese hosts, referring to the “Chinese people” rather than “Japanese people” as he spoke

Oops, what a blunder!

Bach.... go home.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

He’s more interested in the 2021 Winter Olympics in Beijing than the one coming up next week.

9 ( +11 / -2 )

Lol that's a pretty bad slipup, can't imagine how he could make any kind of excuse for that. Jet lag?? Awful!

10 ( +11 / -1 )

I understand his mistake though...so many countries line his pockets, it is easy to forget where he is.

19 ( +20 / -1 )

quercetumToday  04:54 pm JST

It’s the lowest insult for the Japanese to be mistaken for a Chinese.

It's not just the Japanese. It's everybody in Asia, from South Korea to Vietnam.

7 ( +14 / -7 )

Indeed it was captured on video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WDfgyoqaa8

good for a late-afternoon chuckle

17 ( +18 / -1 )

Bach was obviously jetlagged so shouldn't have been expected to perform his best, so let's forgive him.

But let's not care about the athletes, most of whom will fly in just before their event, and yet be expected to compete at peak performance in the furnace that will be Tokyo.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Bach spent his first three days in isolation at the International Olympic Committee's five-star hotel in central Tokyo, and his movements in Tokyo are limited — like almost everyone entering for the Olympics — for the first 14 days.

If his movements in Tokyo are limited, how can he travel to Hiroshima within the 14 days? He arrived on the 8th July

10 ( +11 / -1 )

Bach was obviously jetlagged so shouldn't have been expected to perform his best, so let's forgive him.

Never.

Bach, Coe, Coates, Dick Pound and every single man and woman attached to the IOC can NEVER be forgiven.

These politicians are entitled, contemptuous and dismissive of Japanese people to the point of racism.

10 ( +13 / -3 )

Bach spent his first three days in isolation at the International Olympic Committee's five-star hotel in central Tokyo, and his movements in Tokyo are limited — like almost everyone entering for the Olympics — for the first 14 days.

Bach is scheduled to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Friday in an effort to tie the Olympics to the city’s effort to promote world peace. IOC Vice President John Coates it to visit Nagasaki the same day.

When you're at the top of a stinking pile of ****, 14 days means whatever you want it to mean. I wasn't aware that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are suburbs of Tokyo. But there you go!

Further evidence that the global elite are laughing themselves silly at the manufactured panic, lockdowns and vaccination blitz. The spectator-free Olympic circus is just icing on the cake.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Ouch. That’s quite a faux pas.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

If his movements in Tokyo are limited, how can he travel to Hiroshima within the 14 days?

He can travel in dedicated transport - a car or minivan - with a plastic sheet sealing the masked driver off from the rear masked passengers: his own little bubble, with no unauthorised stops or deviation en route. That's the protocol.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Seriously, I teach English in better looking rooms than that.

And most eikaiwa staff know how to put up a poster. Look at the back of the room here.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Good evening Cleveland! Are you ready to rock?! Oh, errr, Good evening Chicago! Are you ready to roooock?!

6 ( +7 / -1 )

3 days? Ahhhhhh, bless him!

Must be tough ,all that kaiseki room service!

7 ( +8 / -1 )

LOL ! The Chinese people bit is so funny ! I am starting to like this bloke ! He should give a speech on the televised opening ceremony !

7 ( +8 / -1 )

He proves once again how little regard he has for the Japanese people and he probably does not think highly of Asian people in general.

The folks in Hiroshima are right for not wanting that trash there.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Good. Let's cancel the winter Olympics lest he makes another mistake again and causes a war.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

Bach needs immediate testing & isolation. - Disorientation & Anosmia, the inability to distinguish different cultural smells & tastes, are alarming symptoms of possible CoVid infection.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Just remember, Herr Bach -- Japanese drive on the left, and Chinese on the right. It's not rocket science, you'll figure it out.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

I can’t verify it, but on another site I saw that he is supposedly staying in the Imperial Suite at the Hotel Okura which goes for a price of ¥3 million per night. According to the site I saw, the IOC is paying ¥50,000 a night, the organizers which of course means taxpayers, are paying the rest

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Bach corrects Chinese slip-up in Olympic talks; this only means he is already looking forward to the winter Olympics in China!!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Glad to know his expensive hotel uses the same carpet tiles from my local home center.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Japan has officially spent $15.4 billion on the Olympics, and government audits say it is much more. All but $6.7 billion is public money

Was it too hard to write that $8.7 billion is public money, or is this just a way to throw the lower number for public?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Oh, idiot

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Kazuo Shii is so right.

https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2021052700943/

After the collapse of the bubble economy, Japan lost respect from the West. These Western elites barely consider Japan as a nation more than a neo-colony, by the US for military bases and IOC/financial institutions as cash cows.

Bach is the latest representation of what global elites really think about Japan. They are really looking forwards to the Beijing Olympics 2022, not Tokyo 2021. Regardless of how much Japan is paying these Westerners to say, the global elites won't ever respect Japan at all.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

That's a gaff from not respecting people just here to pick up his cashola, can't wait to rake in the profits. Other than checking himself to know where he is that's about it

2 ( +3 / -1 )

“You have managed to make Tokyo the best-ever prepared city for the Olympic Games,".

I doubt people will think that when they see the boring events with empty stadiums. Although I think they should have allowed fans even in the current situation, they wouldn't be in this mess if Tokyo had gotten the vaccination rollout right.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Ahhh Bach!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Please leave 75% of Japanese people do not welcome u .please stop this Olympics.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

This guy is really the President of the IOC? Bach doesn't even know what country he is in AND only had to spend 3 days in isolation. He should spend 14 days in isolation like everyone else. Only for thee, and not for me privileges of the oligarchs. The virus doesn't transmit from high powered people?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Bach just knows how to endear himself to the host nation.

Still, it’s an easy mistake to make...

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

This is where Anton Chighur says "You don't know what you're talking about, do you?".

Honestly, the mere presence of Thomas Bach is an insult to the people of Japan.

Please leave immediately.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Best prepared city except for the failure to vaccinate the vast majority of the population in the host city despite countries of similar wealth accomplishing this months ago.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

 Its main impact is to push bars and restaurants to close early and stop selling alcohol, a move aimed at cutting down circulation on crowed trains.

If you want to cut down circulation on crowded trains, give businesses incentives to let people work from home more so they don't have to get on the trains at all. Most people who go out to drink are ALREADY OUT from a day at work, so there's not much reduction in trains when they have to ride one home anyway-- they're just earlier.

But instead we're going to just make people miserable but not do anything to actually make things better.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

But instead we're going to just make people miserable but not do anything to actually make things better.

Well, that’s “the science” - or something like that

1 ( +1 / -0 )

asians are all the same to him

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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