tokyo 2020 olympics

Outdoor drinking party in athletes village being investigated

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By GRAHAM DUNBAR

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68 Comments
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So draconian.

-11 ( +16 / -27 )

For the the athletes that are have already completed their competitions, there is now no down side for them even if they break the rules - they are on the plane within 2 or 3 days of finishing anyway.

33 ( +35 / -2 )

“We are investigating the situation and based on the result we are to take appropriate action,” Muto said.

I guess the Investigation will be finished after the Olympics is finished.

31 ( +35 / -4 )

Athletes were told they could drink alone in their rooms

The most dodgy way to drink alcohol, alone and isolated. It may be the norm in Japan but in most places drinking is a social activity.

30 ( +38 / -8 )

Sunday.

Organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto said “multiple athletes” and other team officials were drinking alcohol at the park within the village late Friday.

They should have gone to the local convenience store like normal locals do,

Police arrived after the incident, A rapid response?, But it does take time to don helmets, shields get the batons signed out. Those athletes as athletes do were going for gold in the speed drinking event.

I hope the all are forced to write a self criticism letter about themselves and their families. And are spurned by society for a very long time.

7 ( +12 / -5 )

Cool, sounds like fun. Living life is a lot better than surviving.

Yet, some people think that just merely surving is living life.

Nope. No way. No how.

-7 ( +15 / -22 )

There is a lockdown in Japan but only for foreign athletes. Many dont think that's fair. They look out their sealed bus windows and see Japanese people shopping, talking, eating and yes, drinking like normal, and believe this to be discrimination, including of a racial nature. Can you blame them?

Tokyo 2020 - the discrimination Games.

24 ( +39 / -15 )

An outdoor drinking party at the athletes village that broke rules designed to limit the spread of COVID-19 at the Games is being investigated…

Organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto said “multiple athletes” and other team officials were drinking alcohol at the park within the village late Friday. 

OK. Now investigate the hundreds of Japanese people that were shown packed shoulder to shoulder on the bridge overlooking the Ariake Sports Park watching the BMX event.

I mean, they all didn’t get there in their own personal ‘bubbles’ did they?

If we seriously want to ‘limit the spread of COVID at the games’, we need to look at the behaviour of the locals, not just the few foreigners.

Positive cases have exploded since the Olympics started, but officials keep saying ‘it has nothing to do with the Olympics’. Right… well broadcast pictures of people packed together on bridges, and at the side of the roads for the cycling road races, triathlons etc. would suggest otherwise.

20 ( +24 / -4 )

We are investigating the situation and based on the result we are to take appropriate action,” Muto said.

Translated:

"We are going to find out the nationality of the athletes involved and base our response on how subservient we are to the country or countries in question".

21 ( +25 / -4 )

I guess the Japanese competitors are allowed to drink outside as well as stay in private accomodation.

The Olympics and the so called "rulebook" have been a cripplingly expensive farce.

17 ( +21 / -4 )

It must cause people of the left political bent great anxiety to see free thinking people live life and enjoy living experiences vs just surviving.

These people who were supposedly drinking outside were just being human and living life. Loving, laughing, sharing.

And to think, certain types of people are trying to desperately outlaw that.

And you all know very well Muto isn't going to do a darn thing about it cuz he knows these people are living life, and that's ok.

-8 ( +7 / -15 )

So lm guessing there is no Police presence near the Olympic village? Certainly not one that can arrive within the time frame of a drinking party? Did the participants of alleged drinking party not inform the authorities beforehand allowing them to get ready for an incident?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto  has play-book for the para Olympics sorted, for any out door drinking parties , prostheses will be confiscated, and wheel chairs will be put up on bricks.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

One would think there would be multiple mobile patrols moving about and especially checking the internal park where drinking and doing the dirty act could happen.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

“Tokyo organizers said one athlete who stayed in the village was among 18 new cases.”

Meaning the other 17 actually are…

“The overall total includes 108 visitors to Japan.”

Meaning the other 156 actually are…

Come on, what’s the word, I think is similar to that used to describe the 10,000 inhabitants of the country that are found positive every day just outside the Olympics…

9 ( +10 / -1 )

@ Cricky ‘So lm guessing there is no Police presence near the Olympic village?’

There were 100 policemen from Hyogo but 50 are isolated after a dozen testing positives thanks to the crowded living conditions at their Tokyo suburbs shared accommodation. The other 50 might have come just in time to make sure some athletes get the virus too as a punishment for drinking outdoors: “You should do like we did, all in one room!”

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Eh? ‘Stricter enforcement’ says someone who hypocritically flaunts their weekend trip & return outside Tokyo for the weekend perhaps?:

*- @8:29am: “*One would think there would be multiple mobile patrols moving about and especially checking the internal park where drinking and doing the dirty act could happen.” -

4 ( +4 / -0 )

This is the most expensive Olympics in Olympics history (24B usd).

There are no spectators. And the athletes are treated almost as prisoners - they must have smartphones on them with two apps: OCHA and COCOA. One app monitors your position and the other requires you to react to it at random times.

No one cares about Olumpics except people who profit on it: who extract tax-payer money overseas.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

There is a fire station located right INSIDE the village, so likely a copy of two also stationed there, although I didnt see cop cars parked there, they were certainly patrolling around when I was there when it was still a ghost town

1 ( +1 / -0 )

t is impossible to contain human nature, especially in the throws of a sports festival.

Send in the riot police?

The athletics are first and formal invited guests.

Which evokes the most crucial significant point, the 2020 Olympic Games should have been cancelled. Aborted.

Everything about these Games and the spread of a pandemic, is abhorrent.

The need to contractually, fulfil the necessity to swell the IOC coffers, is a criminal act, when viewed from the essential measurements taken, the need if you will, to quell the spread of a pandemic into the wider population.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

To even suggest their is not a link between, the spread of this virus, the danger/risk to future variants, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games is a outrageous falsehood.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

The athletes are “fully vaccinated”, and tested regularly yet still treated like Typhoid Mary.

Wrong.

Many athletes are NOT vaccinated. 1 in 5 of the American team are not vaccinated. This rate would be even higher in some other nations.

It was ludicrous and reckless to hold the Olympics.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

If only the authorities were as serious with the local population as they are with the Olympic athletes, we might not be in this mess.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Apparently the Big Pharma vaccines are highly effective. At least we are told as much. So anyone who has taken these vaccines should be free to walk around without a mask, drink beer in the company of others and etc. I don't know about these particular athletes but I'm talking in general in Japan.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

The 11,000 athletes at the Tokyo Olympics were warned before the Games that drinking alcohol in groups was a breach of the so-called playbook rules intended to limit COVID-19 infections.

This so called Playbook is meaningless, cannot in all truth and honesty be enforced, when taking into account numbers of athletes ignoring the protocols. This is the dilemma from the outset.

To spend this colossal mountain of money on this lunacy is truly shocking.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

As for two athletes being out and about. It's just had to be Georgians.

Athletes at the village, should have been a little more discreet. Outdoor? Actually much safer for limiting and spread, but more likely to attract the trouble. Have a couple of quiets with you teammates, in your room.

Gotta be smarter guys.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

I'd rather understand why is this epidemic Covid-19 spreading faster and wider in this Olympic Games, only to investigate the real situation and let people know if this increasing cases are from this Olympiad or something abnormal happening in all Japan.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

the j-cops assumed it was a regular call in.

j-cops: it’s a public disturbance call, should we move?

boss: yeah, wait till I finish my bento

20 minutes later.

j-cops: uhh, boss, the disturbance was a bunch of foreigners in the Olympic village. Maybe we should start going.

boss: foreigners!!!! Say something sooner slappy! Let’s move!!!!!

upon arrival.

j-cops: uhhh no one’s here…..

boss: quick, make incriminating evidence…….

1 ( +6 / -5 )

The organizers of these games had a dinner party with 40 people attending at the beginning of the games.

Athletes (the ones these games are supposed to be about) are only allowed to drink in their cardboard-bed furnished rooms by themselves.

Another way the Olympics are showing the world the real Japan is how bureaucrats can suck out the joy out of anything otherwise naturally joyful while those in power party on the plebs' dime.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

So lm guessing there is no Police presence near the Olympic village?

Police arrived after the incident, A rapid response?, But it does take time to don helmets, shields get the batons signed out.

Riot police wearing their protective equipment are already stationed in their blue buses in a number of expressway car parks close to Harumi and other parts of Tokyo.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I have never met a J cop/bobby/officer dibble that could ever be mistaken for Crockett and Tubbs, or Charlie's Angels for that matter, at least here in Kochi or Nagoya.

They are not more likely to roll around, weapons drawn that my Grandmother.

They will certainly not gung-ho around the Olympic Village on the sound of a ring pull amongst a group athletes

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Wow, when can we stop the fascism?

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

There is NO RISK of outdoor transmission. Want links? Google it.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Hey! I don't blame the athletes one bit. Since they can't go around the city, except for their events, only to return to their cells. What else can they do in the meantime? I've also seen YouTube videos of them raising hell in their cells by testing their cardboard beds. Now, if these draconian rules will help make the Olympics "Wonderful," according to Koike, then I think her definition of wonderful is outside of reality. What else can they do to let out some steam and enjoyment? You tell me.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Bit of an outdoor drinking party nearly every second evening and sometimes morning at my local park and nearby dog run amongst some unmasked oyajis.

Should I call the cops?

11 ( +13 / -2 )

I feel like a lot of spotlight is put on athletes, but what about the other country or team officials/supporting staff who are free to roam the streets of Tokyo? Saw a couple of French people with distinctive Olympics badges in Odaiba on the weekend so that got me thinking that they would be the ones spreading COVID, not the athletes.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

These games will always have an asterisk attached to it and that's basically thanks to Covid. The IOC and organizers in Japan have tried their best to make this work under a very difficult and never seen before situation affecting the whole world. Should it have been cxld maybe but here we are. Rules were put in place and the athletes had to agree to them so they all knew all this before coming here. Get here and compete and when you're done return home. It's harsh I agree, but if they want to come visit another time then please return when covid is gone or under better control around the world. It's a business trip and nothing more. Overall I've been enjoying watching the games and seems the sporting events are all running smoothly.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

The athletes have a far greater chance of getting the virus from the local populace than spreading it to them, because the Japanese government, at every level, completely failed in getting the Japanese fully vaccinated prior to the Olympics starting and are continuing that failure to this day.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

My mate bumped into athletes from 2 countries drinking in Roppongi over the weekend, so at least these guys were still in the village

Village? Or ghetto?

1 ( +5 / -4 )

I like the double standard here - outdoor drinking party in athletes village is no go, outdoor drinking by locals all around Japan is OK. That's not to say that one or the other is good. I'm just pointing out the double standard. And as Obon approaches... We all know what it's gonna look like. Like the Olympic Village, only on a much larger scale. The only difference is that the athletes are under some sort of control, whereas the majority of the local population is not.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Take the medals away from all that break the rules.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

Olympians are guests to Japan, so be nice while in Japan. so drink like hell home.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

From the photo 2 coast guard ship things stationed offshore, but a drinking party, inside the bubble. And the police were too late to get there? Either a quick drinking party or an extremely long time to respond.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Don’t be so harsh. It’s crystal clear and obvious that you can stand the whole thing only by excessive drinking. And btw, as we are told, there’s zero risk, because it’s inside the bubble. lol

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@ Roblib

The IOC and organizers in Japan have tried their best to make this work under a very difficult and never seen before situation affecting the whole world.

No they did not very far from it. LDP stucks in wanting to please its far right group and elite buddies by targeting foreigner moreover athletes while doing close to peanuts for their safety. IOC just think of its money and washed its hand out of it with their updated waiver.

They did not create a bubble but a swiss cheese. Nothing is done to ensure real safety in athletes. They put a bunch of people in shared accommodation, bedroom included, with plastic panel here and there, sanitizer here and there and asking people to wear a mask even when practicing in the packed machine room with machine spaced like 10cm.

They do not even try to make these safe. Just cosmetics.

And now they are bitching about people sharing most likely 1 or 2 drinks outside. Sure, sharing drink in your closed shared room, training together with a bunch of people in a closed room with a so effective drenched in sweat mask, line up to get food prepared and served by someone going in and out the bubble all the time and then sitting next to someone with your table space being separated by some partition but most likely not the chair where the actual potential virus packed machine is sitting.

And in the meantime the non athlete ...

14days must have passed since most of them came in, no ?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Burning BushToday  06:43 am JST

The new normal.

Getting fresh air on your balcony is a crime.

Clearly not the situation at all and meant to inflame the situation, but they'll let your post stay. Interesting

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@BigYen

I get your point and I agree with most of it. However, I must say that personally I am pro lockdowns and restrictions. I just think it's a bit rich that those who are meant to be the protagonists of the Olympics have disproportionately stricter rules than not only those who are behind the scenes (the IOC, politicians etc.), but also the general public. And not just that, the police is getting involved!

These things were bound to happen and while we can agree that breaking the rules will, generally, be met with consequence, I also believe it's important to consider who those rules serve. Yes, the numbers are so bad now that they would merit a few weeks of lockdown with people not going to work or socializing (even though the J gov doesn't have the power to enforce that). All the more of a reason though to wonder why the Olympics are actually happening.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

5 years of preparation, you finish your competitions, you may be at the end of your career, its a sunny day outside and you are going home anyway . . . . .

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Seems ok for Japanese people to do such things though

4 ( +4 / -0 )

@Flute what you described is basically how everywhere is isn't it? The grocery store the restaurant my son's school, etc is all basically cosmetics. Wear masks, put the hand sanitizer by all the doors, post some signs up here and there. That's the world we are in now and basically been in since last spring. I accept it and keep living life and do my best to follow the rules and watch out for others. Can't ask for much more IMO. Cases going up yes but is it all to blame on the Olympics, no I disagree, let's also throw in that it's summer holidays for schools so many people travelling here and there which will also add to the overall problem. But still, I'm enjoying the Olympics and I believe overall things running smoothly.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Roblib

all to blame on the Olympics, no I disagree

So if I understand clearly your point :

Blaming IOCLDP : bad, blaming athletes : good.

Measures to protect athletes are mostly cosmetics as the one put to protect the population. So IOC and LDP did their best.

That's the world we are in now and basically been in since last spring.

I do not get there you are taking your information from but as far as I know from article or people living oversea : the measures around the world are far different than what is applied in Japan. Social distancing for one, ban of alcohol for two (no comment about the difference between athletes and their team and others).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

But maskless dinner parties at small hostess bars are okay for politicians?

Not just for politicians. I have never put on a mask, I ride on the trains, go to restaurants and bars, go shopping, etc. All without wearing a mask and as you might guess from my name, I'm not vaccinated either. Not a big deal.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Hopefully they can bow their way out of this.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

People can be an asymptomatic spreader and not know it

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Let them have a laugh and drink with their mates, their young, it’s human nature. Just been out for a couple of beers myself, glad many bars are ignoring the SOE in Osaka, lol

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@12:47am 12:53am and 1:04am ALL Off-topic AND derail the theme of the thread:

“Outdoor drinking party in athletes village being investigated” -

@KentarogaijinToday  01:04 am JST

These games will always have an asterisk attached to it and that's basically thanks to Covid. The IOC and organizers in Japan have tried their best to make this work under a very difficult and never seen before situation affecting the whole world. Should it have been cxld maybe but here we are. Rules were put in place and the athletes had to agree to them so they all knew all this before coming here. Get here and compete and when you're done return home. It's harsh I agree, but if they want to come visit another time then please return when covid is gone or under better control around the world. It's a business trip and nothing more. Overall I've been enjoying watching the games and seems the sporting events are all running smoothly.

 I'll take the situation here in Japan 10x before I take what people are doing in other countries. My son here barely missed any school during this whole year and a half, he basically missed 3 weeks and that's it, all his after school activities continued as well during this whole pandemic. Compare that to my friends in US and Europe where online learning was the norm for basically the entire year and forget about extra activities, all cancelled. All that still going on around us and not a single friend or family member has contracted the virus, why because we are careful and follow the rules set in place wherever we go like most do in this country. Japan isn't perfect and nowhere is but I am definitely not complaining about how things are handled here when I see the mess going on in other parts of the world and how big protests are held to fight masks and all that sort of BS. Please if you don't like it here then return to your country. My family and I live very comfortable here.

Great !!.. Someone with great attitud, common sense and smart, good for you @Roblib !!.. I hope all the gaijins would be like this very fine guy instead on whining for EVERYTHING in Japan.. 

Please if you don't like it here then return to your country. 

Exactly, if there are people here who keep complaining and talking bad about everything, what are they doing here??, go and search happiness, find another place where they can be happy..

I found happiness here !!.. 

I would not exchange Japan for any other country in the world !!..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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