Olympics
TODAY, IT’S ONE YEAR TO TOKYO 2020 OLYMPICS
It is exactly one year today to the beginning of the Games of XXXII Olympiad, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Everything seems ready as Tokyo prepares to host its second Olympics since that of 1964.
The organisers have used a staggered system to sell tickets, with first priority given to those within Japan. Later, sale of tickets for international attendants will commence.
Residents in Japan were able to take part in a lottery system, with more than 7.5 million people registering.
The first phase of ticket allocations were announced in June, with 3.2 million tickets sold.
Overseas tickets are sold via authorised sellers, usually the national Olympic committees.
Most of the events of the Games are expected to hold in the heart of Tokyo where two zones have been established.
The Tokyo Bay zone features a number of new venues built entirely for this edition of the Olympics.
The other zone reuses old facilities previously used for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. It was at the 1964 Games that a Nigerian, Nojeem Maiyegun first won an Olympic medal.
The Athletes’ Village is located at the centre of the two zones. The new 68,000-seater Olympic Stadium has been built on exactly the same footprint as the previous National Stadium, which was the focal point for the 1964 Games. The new venue is on track to be completed by this November, ahead of test events.
Unlike at the London 2012 Games, there is no centralised Olympic Park, with all venues sitting apart from each other.
As has been the case with previous Olympic host cities, a number of events will take place outside Tokyo, with cycling and surfing some distance away. Football matches will be held throughout Japan.
Of the 43 venues to be used at the Games, eight are new, 25 existing and 10 temporary. More than half the new venues are already complete, with only the aquatics centre construction due to run over into next year.
As Tokyo is already one of the busiest cities in the world, there is some concern about how an already strained transport system will cope with the addition of hundreds of thousands of people for the Olympics. The organisers’ answer is simple: ask local people to stop travelling at key times.
It may sound bizarre to other nations, but Tokyo 2020 organisers are hoping to tap into a strong national pride that exists in Japan, with the hope that people will do all they can for the Games to be a success.
Dedicated Games lanes are unlikely to be employed in the city, although that is yet to be confirmed. Instead, organisers will ask people to avoid driving at rush hours and businesses to conduct deliveries at night. They claim a 15 per cent reduction in traffic is all they require to achieve a smooth road transport network. Organisers expect spectators to use the city’s extensive rail network to get around.
A seven-week test period has been implemented from July 22 to September 6 this year with more than half a million people being asked to work from home as a trial scheme to see how it affects transport congestion.
Support for Tokyo 2020 seems to be strong if judged purely by the numbers of people who have applied to play a role or attend the Games.
More than 200,000 people applied to fill the 110,000 volunteer places at the Olympics and Paralympics, while ticket applications were so oversubscribed that the deadline had to be extended by 12 hours due to such a high volume of traffic on the website.
The mere fact that organisers believe they need only to ask people not to use their cars rather than provide any other incentive also suggests the local population is broadly happy with playing host.
As often happens with hosting major events, the overspend has gone into the many billions, which has lessened mass support across the country. There have also been reports of violations of human rights among workers at some of the new venues being built.
With Japan’s status as one of the world’s leading electronics innovators, Tokyo 2020 will feature a number of innovative elements, many of which are yet to be announced. Robotics will be used extensively – futuristic-looking electric golf carts will transport people around venues and facial recognition will be used for media and workers.
There have been major concerns about the heat after temperatures of 41 degrees last summer resulted in the death of almost 100 people. To mitigate another heat wave the marathons will begin at 6am and the entire route has been painted with a special substance, which organisers claim reduces the road surface temperature and therefore air temperature immediately above it by up to eight degrees.
There has been great emphasis placed on sustainability, with more than six million old mobile phones and other small electronic devices collected around Japan from which the 5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals will be produced.
The podiums will also be made from recycled waste, with organisers asking Japanese people to donate their plastic waste.
Roy Jones Jr has been handed the Olympic gold medal he was controversially denied in 1988 in an extraordinary act of sportsmanship by the South Korean fighter who beat him.
Hall of Fame boxer Jones shared a video on Wednesday from two years ago that showed Park Si-hun visiting the American’s ranch in Pensacola, Florida to present him with the light middleweight gold medal.
“I had the gold medal, but I want to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” Park said in the video through his son, who translated.
Jones, who was overcome with emotion by the gesture, covered his face with his hand before saying: “Wow, that is crazy.”
Their match at the Seoul Olympics remains one of boxing’s most contentious moments as Jones appeared to dominate the fight but lost to Park by a 3-2 decision that drew instant criticism and sparked enduring controversy.
Despite losing the gold medal match, Jones was selected as the Val Barker Trophy winner as the best boxer of the 1988 Olympics.
Jones went on to become a four-division world champion and is regarded as one of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
“In 1988, I was robbed of the gold medal in what became one of the biggest controversies in boxing history,” Jones wrote in his Instagram post.
“By the grace of God, a couple of years ago, the man who won that medal made the trip from South Korea to my home to return it to me, feeling it was rightfully mine.
“I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did.”
-Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday creating a White House Olympics task force to handle security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, an administration official told Reuters.
The task force, made up of members from Trump’s cabinet and government agencies, will coordinate federal, state and local government work on transportation, the official said.
It also will “streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media,” the official said in an email.
The United States will host the Olympics in Los Angeles in three years. Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed pleasure that his second term will coincide with the Olympics and the World Cup.
“During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday.
Last month organizers of the Los Angeles games released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule . The city had also hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
“The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,” Casey Wasserman, the chair and president of LA28, said in a statement.
–Reuters
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By DAVID LEE
Home is many places for swimmer Adaku Nwandu, who was born in China, lives in Singapore and wears the Nigeria flag on her swimsuit.
And it is at her current home in Singapore that the 17-year-old is making her debut at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
In the second heat of the 100m freestyle at the WCH Arena, the teenager, who has a Nigerian father and Chinese mother, led at the turn before finishing third in 1min 0.89sec – she eventually placed 59th out of 82 athletes overall.
After her race, Adaku shared with The Straits Times that she was born and raised in Shanghai, and started swimming when she was eight. Interestingly, it was ice cream that kept her in the sport.
Adaku, who still has the 50m freestyle heats on Aug 2, said: “At a school competition, I didn’t do so well and I asked my dad if we could make a deal. He said if I do better, he would buy me ice cream once every week, and that’s a promise we have kept with each other. And that’s what brought me here.”
In 2023, the family moved to Singapore due to her mother’s work posting. With her fluent Mandarin and love for Asian and spicy food, it did not take long for her to pick up Singlish and enjoy local delights like chicken rice and chilli crab.
She said: “We came here mainly because of my mother’s work, and also because the swimming scene back where I lived in China was a little bit toxic, so she also thought Singapore would be a new experience and better for my swimming.”
By then, she had already committed to representing Nigeria after its aquatics association contacted her after the National Sports Festival in Asaba, where the then 16-year-old was part of the national record-breaking women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
But Singapore is where she has been honing her swimming skills, as she has set her 50m and 100m freestyle long- and short-course Nigeria national records at meets here.
Noting her improvements, Singapore swimming coach and performance director Gary Tan said: “Adaku has been participating in our system for a while, and we hope it helps her develop as a swimmer and achieve what she wants while training in Singapore with her school (German European School Singapore).”
For someone who is inspired by Olympic champions David Popovici, Caeleb Dressel and Adam Peaty for “their dedication and the way they are able to take breaks for themselves to improve and get back to the water”, qualifying for Paris 2024 on ranking points was a dream come true.
Her Olympic debut was also unforgettable as her swimsuit ripped 20 minutes before her 50m freestyle heat, but she managed to finish second in her heat and 33rd out of 78th overall in 26.62 seconds, just 0.03 of a second off her personal best.
Back in Singapore, Adaku, who is in the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme at her school, realised that she needed more of such resilience to reach her goals.
The swimmer, who also plays for the school’s volleyball team, said: “I had a lot of improvement the first year I came to Singapore. But this past year has been especially hard for me with family problems and also school. The workload in my first year of IB made it hard to balance training and school.
“Especially in the next year, I want to focus more on swimming and try to get some new personal bests because this year I just plateaued. I’m looking forward to training harder and preparing for my next competition and hopefully qualify for the next Olympics.”
-Strait Times, Singapore
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