Media Watch - Tokyo 2020; Thomas Bach; Sochi 2014

Tokyo 2020 Predictions

The New Yorker’s Ian Crouch explores whether Tokyo 2020’s seemingly "perfect Olympic vision" is flawed. Crouch considers a new "blueprint" for the Olympic bidding process:

"Both Tokyo and another finalist for 2020, Madrid, emphasized the infrastructure they already had rather than promise grand futuristic towers. Perhaps more bids will copy this…going forward."

Both Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 contribute to "souring public perception of the civic utility of the hosting the Olympics," Crouch writes. Tokyo’s "safe pair of hands" mantra is most likely what attracted the IOC to the city. Crouch concludes that despite "unanswered questions" facing Tokyo, the city is prepared to host the 2020 Games and "modest enough to shape the Olympics to fit a city rather than reshape a city to fit the Olympics."

CNN Money’s Michael Fitzpatrick predicts the 2020 Summer Olympics will only distract Japan from its "economic woes." Fitzpatrick references economist Kazumasa Oguro who warns that the Games will "seduce the populace and that we should all try to see through the spin."

The "moral boost" will prevail over any "economic miracles."

Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer of Foreign Policy asks if Japan will "finally brush up on its English" in preparation for the Summer Olympics. Last year, a report "showed Japan tied with Tajikistan for the second-lowest English proficiency scores" in Asia. Wittmeyer writes that the Olympics could "convince Japanese people that investing in English is valuable."

The Economist reports that it took a disaster to reignite Tokyo’s bid for the 2020 Olympics. In March 2011, an earthquake and a tsunami destroyed most of Japan’s northeast coast. The natural disasters also caused a "nuclear crisis" at Japan’s Fukushima power plant. "But the city government relentlessly sold the idea that the Olympics would help Japan recover," The Economist writes.

The Economist explores Tokyo 2020’s plans for the Summer Olympics. The city’s "unexpected mojo" prompts Japanese citizens to "party like it’s ’64."

The Japanese government will "lodge a complaint" against the "satirical Le Canard Enchaine," over the French newspaper’s cartoon showing "deformed sumo wrestlers" at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Thomas Bach and the Road to Sochi 2014

Israel National News covers a letter directed to the UN Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP):

"The Simon Wiesenthal Center is calling for the new head of the IOC to resign from his membership in an organization that calls for boycotts of Israel."

Thomas Bach of Germany was elected the IOC’s ninth president on September 10.

Jonathan S. Tobin writes for Commentary Magazine, and calls the new Olympics chief "an Israel boycotter." Bach’s politically neutral approach to the Olympics "was undermined by the fact that the first congratulatory phone call he received was from Russian President Vladimir Putin," Bodin writes. Putin is "counting on the IOC head to protect the 2014 Sochi Winter Games from being derailed by protests over Russia’s anti-gay laws."

Bodin also reports that Bach was a "strong supporter of his predecessor’s refusal to hold even a moment of silence" to commemorate the 1972 Munich Olympics at last year’s London Games.

The Sochi Olympics are five months away; the Games in Rio will take place in three years. Both Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 are "still setting off alarms" for the new IOC president. Issues such as Russia’s anti-gay legislation and Rio’s delayed infrastructure projects could test Bach’s leadership.

In Other News

The Montreal Gazette mostly commends the IOC on its decision to reinstate wrestling to the 2020 Games program. However, the publication criticizes the IOC as it "hold its nose" on Russia’s anti-gay legislation.

TheInternational Business Timescovers National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern’s comments on Russia’s gay propaganda ban:

"The first phone call to the new head of the Olympics [was] from President Putin," Stern said during the Beyond Sport Summit convention. "Everyone wants to talk about the Russian law on homosexuality. Think about the opportunities that sports have to make a continuing statement, and the only thing that we’re saying in that context is ‘Sh! No one say anything!’"

Compiled byNicole Bennett.

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