The Opinionist: A Tale of Three Olympic Cities

By MICHAEL PIRRIE

While working for Olympic organizing committees in Sydney and London we focused on Games preparations in weekly installments, each important, especially in the final countdown to the Opening Ceremony.

After more than eight years of planning, the past week could be the most telling for Tokyo’s postponed Olympic Games.

Just as Charles Dickens wrote in his Tale of Two Cities, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times.

The best of times for sport as record crowds ventured back to major venues in London and Melbourne, two of the world’s sporting capitals and former Olympic cities.

And the worst of times too for the world as global death tolls and suffering continued to soar while vaccination rates and vaccine supplies slowed and struggled to keep up.

It was the Dickensian epoch of belief and of incredulity too.

India was collapsing and choking due to a lack of beds, oxygen and record daily death rates. The worst of times.

Cricket's Indian Premier League played on through the doomsday-like scenarios that experts feared from the pandemic's outset.

A VERY TENSE SITUATION

These were days of dark contrast for global sport and a world in prolonged COVID pain.

Japan’s Olympic Games build up continued as infection levels surged and a new state of emergency was implemented.

The past week Tokyo Games chief Hashimoto Seiko gave the most candid assessment yet of her presidency.

Commenting on the impact of the pandemic on Games preparations and prospects, she solemnly said:

"We are in a very tense situation that we did not expect."

While Tokyo organizers contemplated the possibility of Games without spectators, Wembley hosted the League Cup final in London in front of 8,000 spectators who created pandemic sporting history just by turning up.

NEW POSSIBILITIES

After a year of ghost games football's spiritual home stirred back to life.

With infection levels dipping dramatically across Great Britain and parts of Europe, this was the biggest gathering of football fans in the UK since the pandemic emptied cities and stadia across the continent and far beyond more than a year ago.

The audience of 8,000, capped for COVID safety, also provided a glimpse of the road ahead for sport post pandemic and for Tokyo too.

Tickets alone were not enough to be part of Wembley’s comeback from coronavirus.

Football fans needed a negative COVID-19 test – which Olympic ticket holders will also likely need in Tokyo if domestic spectators are allowed to attend.

Following a winter of despair and discontent the return of fans to Wembley was like a spring of hope from the Dickens classic.

If Wembley tickets were limited, getting a seat was easier at Australia’s own iconic stadium, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which created sporting history on a scale never seen before in the pandemic.

WORLD RECORD

The modernized Olympic stadium used for the 1956 Games welcomed 10 times the number of fans as Wembley to an Aussie Rules football game.

The sea of spectators defied the reality of the pandemic in much of the world beyond Australia.

The event captured the attention of media and sporting federations, governing bodies and organizing committees worldwide, including Tokyo teams and government officials.

This was more than a preview of the new normal for sport and society. It was like a return to normal.

The only rules that seemed to apply were on the field of play.

Masks were a rarity among spectators and COVID free passes were not required for the crowd of 78,113.

Ticket holders instead were confined to limited areas within the venue to prevent widespread movement around the stadium in order to facilitate contact tracing, testing and isolation if necessary.

This was the biggest spectator event of the pandemic, eclipsing the 67,000 that attended a Twenty20 cricket contest between India and England in Ahmedabad last month.

Tens of thousands of spectators can now attend weekend sporting events in Australian capital cities, which have so far largely suppressed the virus.

This was a key reason behind the IOC’s recent nomination of Brisbane as preferred 2032 host city.

GAMES LESSONS

The record crowds in Melbourne came only after the city had been COVID-free for seven straight weeks.

There have been no cases or traces of coronavirus in Melbourne since the game.

The attendances at Wembley and pandemic world record spectator turnout in Melbourne are now being closely studied by international public health experts and sports events committees.

There are important lessons for Tokyo planners.

The return of spectators in numbers to sporting venues in London and Melbourne was hard won; achieved only after long, mandatory lockdowns across almost all sectors of their cities and nations to suppress transmission.

Much is riding on Japan's latest state of emergency if athird Olympic host city, Tokyo, can escape the grip of a new COVID surge.

More than 900 daily new cases were recorded in Tokyo on Tuesday - no city has staged a major international sporting competition with such levels of infection.

Options are narrowing after two earlier states of emergency.

Experts believe further restrictions may be needed to drive down transmission and lift confidence in the safety of the Games.

The impact of the latest restrictions will determine whether virus levels in Tokyo can be lowered sufficiently in time for Japan residents to attend their home Games, the most anticipated and unresolved issue of the Games.

Lowering virus levels must be done without impacting on the time sensitive activation and transfer of complex operational plans from computer screens to competition sites and venues; a mission critical phase of preparations for the Games.

As organizers pour over lessons from the London and Melbourne events, the enforcement of strict and comprehensive lockdown measures underlie success against the virus in both cities and countries.

Much is riding also on the latest Playbook of rules for the Games, released this week too.

With a strong emphasis on pre-Games and daily testing of Olympic participants, the playbook outlines how the Olympics can be delivered safely in pandemic conditions - without infection spreading among international Olympic teams, within Japan and among Olympic home nations on return.

This was a week like no other in the pandemic and for Tokyo's preparations.

A week in the life of the pandemic globally and in Japan with still unknown impacts that will last more than a week and define Olympic outcomes in Tokyo and beyond for years to come.

Homepage photo: Darrian Traynor/AFL Photos

Michael Pirrie led London's global media campaign for the 2012 Olympic Games and was a founding member of the highly regarded bid, and has worked on several Olympic and major event campaigns and committees.

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