Should the Olympics proceed?
 

Just curious what y'all think....

they are on their what, 4th surge?

is it a lack of vaccine issue? i've been under a rock lately. behind on the news.

Yes. (this would have made a great poll)

I guess the big issue is that the Olympics are, I assume a huge prestige matter and likely a huge influx of money for the sponsor. My vote would be have the games go, but without spectators, but then the sponsor would incur the cost but miss on the monetary benefit. I suspect that would make them grumpy. I'm also sure that there are a bunch of folks that don't/wouldn't give a damn and would be happy to go hang in a huge crowd that then travels the globe.

Not proceed because of COVID?

Or not proceed because no one will be watching it?

They just announced they would go on but without fans. They should go on with fans who are vaccinated. Worldmeter does not indicate an uptick over the last 3-4 weeks.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/japan/

It's all about the $. OF course it will proceed.

Will spectators have their admission fee refunded? The Olympic games often result in the host losing money, if tickets must be refunded this could be a financial disaster.

Foriegn fans had already been banned. As it stands today no fans at events in Tokyo.

Venues outside of Tokyo may still have fans. Subject to change.

Without looking it up, the last games to make money was the last LA games. Every country pours tons of government money into a rushed and half baked housing and facilities that often fall into disrepair a few years later. The track and field events are the only ones I care anything about. All the events that require a judge to rank the performance are just politics and only the country of the judge seem to get a good score.

When skate boarding, and badminton are Olympic "sports" is is just silly. The the stupid ones come up like Dressage, or Sailing it is just showing off and not a sport.

No spectators?... What a farce. :(

No.

Even with no spectators, to have thousands of people (athletes and their entourages) from all over the globe flying in to an area where the doctors and nurses (your proverbial boots on the ground) already feel overwhelmed by the hospital admissions is not medically smart. It's an easy medical answer.

They shouldn't be banning the fans like this. That's the real story.

I went looking for information on Japan's response to CV-19 and it was an interesting journey, from great to "fragmented":

https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00695/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/olympics/ahead-tokyo-olympics-japan-vaccination-rate-far-mark-n1272523

I would tend to agree with you, Noah.

I can see badminton as a sport...scores are kept and there are clearly defined winners & losers. But I agree that most of the 'freestyle' events, with their very subjective scoring systems, are mostly just about showing off. I think events of this type are added to attract younger participants and spectators who actually consider them to be real sports. The X-Games are a good example of this new breed of 'competitive' events.

It's like when drifting somehow managed to become a motorsport :rolleyes:

Just like virtually everything else, the Olympics has been politicized, therefore I choose not to watch. Nothing to see here; just one man's unsolicited opinion.

Someone here has never played badminton against a really good player.

Who cares if they go ahead or not? Not me.

This. They’ve been taxed for a year now, I’m amazed the Japanese government didn’t step up and put a stop to it before everyone started traveling. Even if those coming in are vaccinated, they could still be carrying it and causing more infections for the locals.

OTOH, the classic "Olympic" sport athletes only get one shot every 4 years to shine on the world stage. It was already postponed last year, so for a significant portion of those athletes, it is now or never. They should have the choice of competing or staying home.

Agree...