Olympics
JAPANESE INSIST, ‘THE SHOW MUST GO ON’ DESPITE CORONAVIRUS
Japanese officials, not to mention spectators who have been lucky enough to land their hands on a much-coveted golden ticket to a live Olympic event, are fervently hoping that the show will go on.
Saori Asano, 25, who snagged tickets through a ballot to the men’s football final with her university friends, told The Straits Times: “I have been really looking forward to this event, and so I will be very disappointed if it is not going to happen.”
Tickets to the Tokyo Olympics, slated for July 24 to Aug 9, have been highly sought after.
There were over 100 million applications during the two phases of domestic ticket lottery for just 4.48 million tickets.
Referring to rising speculation that the Tokyo Olympics may be in jeopardy due to the unfolding coronavirus outbreak around the world, Asano, who works in communications, said: “This is a big lifetime event that Japan has been preparing to host for a long time.
“I’m sure the risk of cancelling the Olympics outweighs the risk of going ahead.”
Last Friday the term “chushi da chushi” (Just cancel it!) trended on Twitter, as a scene in an 1988 cyberpunk anime Akira seemed like it would prove prophetic.
The movie had famously predicted that Tokyo will host the Games in 2020, and in the scene, the phrase was scrawled in graffiti under a countdown timer with 147 days to go to the Games.
Last Friday marked precisely 147 days to the opening ceremony on July 24.
The last time the modern Games were scrapped was during World War II, and top Japanese officials at every level, including Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, have put on a brave face and vowed to continue preparations for the Games.
Still, Japan has no Plan B if it cannot proceed as planned, Katsura Enyo, deputy director general of the Tokyo 2020 Preparation Bureau at the city government, told Reuters.
“We are not even thinking of when or in what contingency we might decide things. There is no thought of change at all in my mind,” she said.
But Japan is considering downsizing its Olympic torch relay, which will flag off on March 26 in Fukushima and pass through all 47 prefectures.
Some qualifying tournaments have also either been rescheduled or, in the case of the Tokyo Marathon yesterday, scaled down and restricted only to elite athletes, while participants have been barred from entering and spectators urged not to line the streets.
The 1964 Tokyo Games showcased Japan’s rise from the ashes of World War II, and introduced the world to pioneering ideas like the shinkansen bullet train as well as pictographs that served to bridge the language barrier.
It has billed the Games this year as the “reconstruction Games” to showcase how it has recovered from the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, and in return anticipates a major economy and tourism fillip from the marquee sporting event.
Japan has already spent the majority of the estimated 1.35 trillion yen (S$17.4 billion) that the Games are estimated to cost.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) and the Tokyo Games Organising Committee will spend 600 billion yen each, while the national government will contribute 150 billion yen. The TMG is setting aside another 810 billion yen in “related costs”.
Japan has already built a raft of new facilities, including the 156.9 billion yen showpiece National Stadium, designed by renowned architect Kengo Kuma, and the Ariake Arena in the Odaiba district, a 37 billion yen site that will host volleyball and wheelchair basketball during the Paralympics.
Any move to delay or cancel the Games will prove costly to the Japanese companies that have pitched in a record of more than US$3 billion in sponsorship deals, as well as international broadcasters.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach sought to put paid to speculation of the fate of the Games when he told reporters on Thursday: “We are fully committed to a successful Olympic Games in Tokyo starting July 24.”
Fellow IOC member Dick Pound had said last week that a decision would have to be made by May as to whether to proceed with the Tokyo Olympics this year, suggesting that it would be “not impossible” to shift the Games to 2021.
But he stressed: “Our plan is that unless the elephant in the room becomes ginormous, we’re going to open the Games on July 24.”
Tokyo resident Akiho Mishina, 26, who has tickets to watch equestrian events with her family, said there could be greater focus on prevention and hygiene, in case the coronavirus scare has not died down, and that in a worst-case scenario, “it might be rather comfortable to hold the event in autumn”.
-The Strait Times
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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