The Opinionist: Looking For Signs of Hope For Tokyo 2020

By MICHAEL PIRRIE

Japan’s world famous cherry blossom season heralds greater significance this year than in previous times for the Olympic host nation and wider world.

The Sakura blossoms offer a symbol of renewal and hope in a world still reeling from the pandemic with more than three million deaths and counting.

Hope too of a fight back against Covid as the pre-Games build up pushes ahead despite enormous uncertainty.

SIGNS OF HOPE

This includes more Olympic qualifying events; more NBC, BBC and other broadcaster trailers and lead-ins; more venue overlay installations and technology testing; and even the unauthorized publication of Opening Ceremony information, now a standard pre-Games host city event.

The resumption of the dramatically slimmed down Torch Relay watched and followed more online than on the streets is a symbol of hope.

The relay of hope continues to make its way to Tokyo to ignite the Games cauldron even as celebration sites are bypassed due to local Covid fears.

So too was Japanese golfer Hideki Matsuyama’s historic recent US Masters win a symbol of hope, cheered and heard across the Olympic host nation and around the world.

This was an outpouring of joy born of Japan’s obsession with golf, and a demonstration of sport’s unique capacity to unite a nation and inspire global audiences.

Japan celebrated the arrival of a new national hero, who will next represent his country at the Tokyo Games later this year on the Olympic golf greens at Kasumigaseki Country Club, outside the host city.

Matsuyama’s surprise win, with spectators in attendance, was also a victory over local Covid conditions as well as Augusta’s fabled fairways. And a sign of hope.

This lifted the mood of Japan and reminded the Olympic host nation again of why it wanted to host the world’s biggest sporting event.

Matsuyama’s victory came significantly as Japan was recently marking 100 days to the Games.

THE SURVIVAL GAMES

Tokyo’s latest countdown milestone, like Matsuyama’s golfing triumph, came against the odds and expectations.

While Japan bypassed the landmark Olympic calendar diary date last year following postponement, many feared Tokyo might be forced to cancel for a second and final time.

The countdown landmark is also a sign of hope and survival too for the Tokyo Games.

The Olympic preparations have been questioned and challenged like no other by a pandemic that has smashed the world.

With no known delivery guide for the mega international event in a global health emergency, there was initially no Plan B for Tokyo.

Reaching the final 100 days benchmark was like finding a passage from base camp through a viral blizzard to the peaks but not the final summit of Everest without a compass or map.

However, as athletes and players from around the world prepare to take the field in Tokyo in July the coronavirus is refusing to yield.

NEW APPROACH

The recent 100 day benchmark coincided with a new surge in coronavirus infections, making the final ascent to the pinnacle of world sport even more hazardous.

The new surge raises further fears about the fragility of support and safety of the pandemic-stricken Games.

The IOC remains confident Japan will get behind its home games.

The latest corona outbreak comes amid a new approach and attitude to managing the Games, symbolized by the energetic and more inclusive style on new Tokyo Olympic Games leader Hashimoto Seiko.

Japan’s new Olympic committee boss has brought greater empathy to the challenge of organizing the Games amid growing fears the air of excitement that traditionally surrounds an Olympic host city will also be filled with the deadly virus.

Using her new position on the national and international stage, the former Olympic athlete and Minister has sought to reassure an anxious host country and world skeptical about the safety of the rapidly approaching Games.

THE SAFETY IMPERATIVE

The concerns of the Japanese people have been acknowledged and addressed more directly and openly in recent weeks.

A wider perspective and conversation has also commenced with the public and media about the Covid crisis and the Games.

This has even included discussion and debate over a moral imperative to stage the Games as a beacon of hope to the world and the imperative for safety.

While organizers strive to implement plans compatible with both perspectives, Japan has launched an international campaign of Games diplomacy to convince leaders of influential Olympic nations of efforts to stage safe Games, beginning with US President Biden.

This contrasts with the crash through or crash communications style of the previous local Games leadership.

This failed to adequately acknowledge the scale of the pandemic challenge facing Japan and the Games nor the risks involved.

While adamant the Games would go ahead - even as global Covid deaths, disease and hospitalizations soared - little information was available until recently about how this would be done.

The revised public communications strategy - which includes releasing high-level Games policy information to targeted media - has sought to increase the public’s understanding of safety for the Games.

The recent publication of the first set of Covid countermeasures helped to fill the information void that alienated public support.

Mandatory masking, testing, and travel restrictions along with other rules outlined in Games playbooks have helped also to inform an apprehensive Olympic host city and Olympic nations about measures to counter a virus that refuses to play by the book and makes its own rules.

The full impact of the pandemic on the Games is becoming clearer, bringing Tokyo’s unique challenges into sharper focus.

GAMES MINUS 100

While the last 100 days have traditionally been regarded as a defining period for Games success, the future of the Olympics in Tokyo will be decided over a much shorter time frame by the many imponderables that still surround the coronavirus and pandemic.

These include the spread of deadlier and more rapidly transmitted mutant strains and limited vaccine programs.

According to epidemiologists, reducing Covid infection without widespread vaccination means reducing numbers and scale of the Games.

BACK TO THE BASICS

Tokyo essentially will be a fly in and fly out Games following Olympic competition.

While North Korea will be missing for geopolitical motivations rather than corona concerns, members from other Olympic delegations will be missing in order to scale back the Games.

This will limit international Games numbers, movements and gatherings in the host city and sports venues, regarded as the biggest cross infection threat to Japanese communities, visiting Olympic delegations and home nations on return.

This will be a back to basics Games focused on the welfare of athletes like never before with a high tech flourish in sports presentation; a made for TV and digital broadcast event experience without the sell out venues that have long served as the Games backdrops

COVID CATCH-22

Final Games preparations are monumental in scale and complexity.

The final dash centers on the mass mobilization and migration of staff to venues to prepare for the Games.

This involves tens of thousands of volunteers, the frontline Games workers requiring access to scarce vaccines to safely deliver the Games.

While China has offered to vaccinate international athletes, this may be problematic for some Olympic nations concerned about the transparency of clinical trials and results of China’s domestic vaccines.

While infection levels in Tokyo may currently be too high for a public sporting event on the scale of the Olympic Games, Japan’s capacity to curb Covid in coming days and weeks will determine the fate of the Games.

The margin for error is minimal after Japan’s recent premature lifting of pandemic restrictions that saw cases surge, placing the Games in a Covid catch-22.

While new restrictions have been applied in Japan, these may not be sufficient.

Epidemiologists believe compulsory stay at home orders and strict curfews of the kind implemented in the UK, France, and Australia are necessary to flatten the infection curve.

Such comprehensive shut downs however may derail Games preparations.

CONCLUSION

The Games will be decided through the prism of the pandemic. Communities must be rendered Covid-safe as soon as possible to restore domestic and international confidence.

This also is essential to keeping preparations for the vitally important competition and broadcast schedules on time for the Games.

Amidst the ever present Covid threat, Games organizers hope that prospects for the Games will endure well beyond the fleeting cherry blossom season and stretch all the way to the opening ceremony.

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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