It would take a lot of balls for a multinational company to sue the Olympics if they postponed for health reasons. Can’t see this happening, the publicity would be terrible.
However, you might be right about future bids, though one hopes not.
The US had college basketball and football games last winter. Testing and social distancing worked reasonably well.
Some teams got sidelined for a couple weeks after someone tested positive. The NCAA basketball tournament went really well. IIRC That involved 32 teams this year.
The team managers and coaches deserve a lot of credit for enforcing social distancing. It was obvious which teams didn’t because they got quarantined several times.
Heck the NBA finals are on right now.
Japan should let the athletes compete. I agree with eliminating the stadium crowds. Test for the virus and quarantine as needed.
So I know Japan has botched the vaccination effort pretty badly and hardly has anyone vaccinated, but surely all the athletes and support staff are vaccinated, right? Not having travelers from around the world mingle in the audience is a reasonable precaution if they feel like they can’t guarantee vaccine status, but why is everyone treating the athletes and support staff like lepers? Surely they’re all vaccinated. Why do they have to put on their own medals?
Most, but absolutely not all.
This Forbes article indicates that athletes haven’t been required to be vaccinated in order to compete (though it was “encouraged”). Around 85% of participants (athletes and staff) have been vaccinated.
It was a 68-team bracket this year, actually, same as usual, but with one team, VCU, that had to drop out and not participate because of COVID-19 protocols. Their first-round game with Oregon was declared a no-contest.
No, it can’t be rescheduled. That’s the hard part for Japan. If it’s postponed now, it’ll be cancelled with NO opportunity to be held, and Japan is on the hook for all associated costs therein.
Indeed, I’ve seen postings from an American athlete who was bragging about how he was unvaccinated, and he represented his country’s freedoms in that way.
I cannot fathom why the Olympics are allowing unvaccinated participants, especially when they’re enforcing more onerous and less effective measures.
Thank you for the correction. I remembered talk about eliminating the first qualifying round as a precaution . I never heard if they did.
Should we start a new thread for the actual Olympic event? It starts in two days.
The Forbes article indicates that the IOC worked with the countries to distribute vaccines to some countries. However:
I suspect that the IOC did not want to be seen as effectively banning some countries or athletes from participating, due to local laws around the vaccine.
2/3 of the Japanese public apparently do not think they should be holding the Games. So much so that Toyota has decided not to advertise in Japan or have its executives attend.
How did a country that leads in technology innovation skip vaccinations?
The losses hosting a Olympics without spectators and losing some major advertising must be staggering.
At least they still have the deal for TV rights.
The athletes will provide great competition entertainment.
If the athletes are sent home after the medals are awarded, then the closing ceremonies will be 100 times as pathetic as the opening ceremonies.
I thought it was the IOC that can make that decision?
Not skipped, delayed.
- Japan asked for additional, local clinical trials for the vaccines before approving them
- They lack enough skilled healthcare workers to devote to the vaccination program (only doctors and nurses are allowed to administer vaccinations in Japan)
- They did have a delay in getting the vaccines early on, though that no longer appears to be a problem
A friend of mine is a U.S. expat, who lives in Japan and works as an English teacher at a school. They’re telling him that he can expect to be vaccinated by September, at the earliest.
That still doesn’t explain why an unvaccinated American would be allowed to attend.
I would suspect that the IOC is not differentiating between those who are unvaccinated because they cannot get a vaccine, and those who have actively chosen to not be vaccinated.
But no one scheduled to attend the Games should be unable to obtain a vaccine. If one is not available from one’s own health authorities, there should be a process to get it from the IOC.
Under the terms of the host city contract between Tokyo and the IOC, this is correct. However, the Japanese government can theoretically still do so unilaterally, it would just be considered breach of contract and
(quote taken from article below)
Absolutely, maybe multiple threads with some of the popular sports needing their own thread. And hopefully the ‘they shouldn’t hold them!’ comments can stay here