TOKYO (AP) – Friday would have been postponed on the 7th of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, halfway through.
The focus was on how, or if, the Olympic Games will be held next year. The pandemic will require gunfire. How will Tokyo remain safe with the arrival of 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes in the country? Will there be foreign fans or just Japanese? Or will there be fans? What about the staff, the media, the volunteers, or the public servants who paint the scenes?
Organizers say it will take months to provide explicit answers. Recent polls show that about 70% of Japanese doubt that games are taking positions or think they are not.
Here’s a look at what’s happening:
Q: What about the sinister heat of the Tokyo summer? How’d it go so far?
ANSWER: Before the pandemic and postponement, the organizers’ biggest fear was the sweltering summer heat in Tokyo. The summer of 2019 has been difficult, but as far as summer has been tempered and humid.
Temperatures this first week were in the diversity of 27-30 degrees Celsius – 80sF low – with some rains in the morning and evening, some sunny afternoons and no genuine heat although it is almost humid.
The forecast for next week looks almost better with mild temperatures and more sun.
The International Olympic Committee was so involved with the warmth that President Thomas Bach pressured Tokyo organizers last year to move marathons and the 800-kilometer (500-mile) race north of Sapporo, who is also one of the leading contenders to win the 2030 Winter Olympics.
The resolution sparked a public dispute between the IOC and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. Millions, too.
Q: We saw Japanese swimming star Rikako Ikee last week in a short rite at the new national stadium. What are your plans?
A: Ikee the Star of the Asian Games two years ago, winning six gold medals in Jakarta. She was promoted as the “Golden Girl” of Japan and actually the face of the Olympic Games. However, he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2019 and underwent one year of complicated treatments. Ikee, 20, hopes to compete. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Holding the Olympic flame in a small lantern, he delivered a poignant speech last week at the new national stadium, which was empty for the 15-minute rite on July 23 to mark the first year of the Games. It symbolizes the struggles facing Tokyo 2020 as it tries to achieve an unprecedented postponement.
“That this year that starts today is not only a delay, but is noted as ‘plus one’ more year,” Ikee said, speaking in Japanese. “I think it’s a positive, forward-thinking way of thinking. Of course, I sense that there are voices that even oppose discussing the game when the global is in such a critical situation.
“But on the other hand, I think when you come out of adversity, you want the strength of hope. As long as hope shines in the distance, you can continue to face the future, no matter the difficulties.”
Q: What is the status of the Paralympic Games?
A: Olympic athletes learned a few weeks ago that next year’s Olympic-day schedule for the Olympics will be pretty much the same as this year’s. Paralympic athletes are expected to get news on Monday.
Organizers say they have covered the same 42 venues for the Olympic Games, and one that is reserved exclusively for the Paralympics.
More than 4,400 Paralympic athletes are expected, less than the 11,000 Olympic athletes expected. Plans require athletes to stay at the Athletes’ Village, a gigantic development in Tokyo Bay.
Q: What are some of the scenarios for organizers next year?
ANSWER: IOC Vice President John Coates, who leads the tokyo inspection team, gave several interviews this week in Australia. He repeated what he had said a few weeks ago in an assembly with all IOC members. It’s all on the table.
“There are other obvious scenarios where games can take place, depending on where the COVID-19 is,” Coates told the Australian Associated Press.
He described some possibilities.
“A situation can also simply be that COVID has disappeared,” he said. “One situation may also be that COVID is low in some countries but not in others among the 206 that send groups to parties. One situation could be that COVID is completely eliminated in Japan; or not be eliminated in Japan.”
He repeated what IOC President Thomas Bach said: Fans are better, but guaranteed.
Q: Where’s the viral in Tokyo?
ANSWER: Tokyo reported on Friday a one-day record of 463 new cases. The number surpasses Thursday’s record of 367. Tokyo and Japan are experiencing a resurgence of the virus and officials have called on restaurants and bars to restrict their schedules.
Overall, Japan was saved from 1,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
Q: What is the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics?
ANSWER: China Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin asked this week about the option to cancel the Winter Olympics.
“China will continue with Japan as the venue for the Olympics, and we also expect the Tokyo Olympics to be held as planned,” Wang said.
“Currently, arrangements for the Beijing Winter Olympics are being conducted in an orderly manner as planned, and all parties, adding the International Olympic Committee, have praised the progress of the arrangements,” Wang added.
If Tokyo were cancelled, attention would be moved without delay to China, where the coronavirus was first detected. Beijing won the Winter Games in 2015, ahead of Almaty, Kazakhstan, after several European bidders withdrew.
IOC President Thomas Bach warned two weeks ago that he opposes any risk of an Olympic boycott. He did not mention China, but the option turns to be there with the growing tension between China and the United States.
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Ap Tokyo correspondent Yuri Kageyama contributed to the report.