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How the IOC delivered the most challenging of Games


The Olympic Games has survived world wars, a terrorist attack and cold war boycotts.

Before the Tokyo 2020 Games began, a year later than originally planned, there were major doubts the International Olympic Committee (IOC) could pull off the world’s biggest sporting event in the middle of a global pandemic in a country that overwhelmingly did not want the Games to proceed.

Promises that they could deliver a safe and secure environment, and provide a global population with something to celebrate, were largely derided.

The IOC’s Olympic Games executive director, Christophe Dubi, a veteran of 12 Olympic Games, told the ABC the challenges leading into Tokyo were without precedent.

“As long as I can remember … this ranks very easily first,” Dubi told The Ticket.

“When you have to organise the Games of the Olympiad, it is a monumental effort and nobody denies that it is something complicated, but this is far over and above anything else.”

The Olympic Games did not receive a warm welcome upon its arrival to Tokyo.(

Reuters: Edgar Su

)

Thousands of contracts had to be extended and re-written, Tokyo’s “Big Sight” — the convention centre housing the world’s media and broadcasters — had to postpone a year’s worth of events, and people who’d bought apartments in the Tokyo Bay athletes village had to find other living arrangements.

“But then you have to do two other things, one, admit that postponing has a cost … then the big thing was the COVID countermeasures because this is an entirely different operation.

“This is totally different, and that’s complicated.”

Outside the Olympic bubble, Tokyo officials and the Japanese government are struggling to bring down COVID-19 infection rates, now over 4,000 cases a day in the capital alone, but, with no crowds at venues and extremely limited opportunities for the general public and the Olympic stakeholders to interact, the city is essentially living in a parallel world.

Inside the bubble where athletes, officials, volunteers and the media are subjected to regular testing, the positives being returned are at 0.02 per cent, far less than the 1 per cent the IOC was told to expect based on their pre-Games modelling.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Village on Harumi Island flanked by Japan Coast Guard ship
Those who bought apartments in the Tokyo Bay athletes’ village had to make other plans after the Games delay.(

Getty: Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA 

)

There is still a perception among some Tokyo residents that the Games are to blame for their predicament.

“Debate is healthy,” Dubi said, “But in the main, what we see amongst the population is huge support.”

When Dubi and his team arrived in early June, opposition to the games was running at about 83 per cent.

In the latest poll run in Japanese media, support is up to 73 per cent.

Much of the turnaround can be attributed to the success of the Japanese Olympic team sitting second on the medal tally behind China with 60 medals so far, 20 of them gold.

“Their results are outstanding, starting with the new sports which were phenomenal and on top they medalled, so this helped a lot,” Dubi said.

Japanese athlete with his Olympic gold medal
Hifumi Abe, who won the men’s judo 66kg event, has been among Japan’s many medalists.(

Getty: Leon Neal

)

“But what you see is that feeling of, it’s great to have the world with us … but we cannot really be part of it because of the state of emergency and the fact that the stadiums are without spectators.

“Do we embrace this as the IOC? You have to. You have to follow what the authorities consider to be what is our first priority — safe conditions for each and everyone.”

‘We have to let fresh air in’

While the public’s mood has shifted, there are still challenges for the Olympic movement itself, which Dubi said they were confronting.

“You know, I really love this very simple image that the president [Thomas Bach] gave us when strategising about Agenda 2020 and that was way back in 2014,” he said.

“We are reflecting what is happening in society, we have to have the opinions of the world, we have to take the pulse on what is going on out there and this is exactly what we have done.”

Evidence of that is the entry of the first transgender woman, Laurel Hubbard from New Zealand, competing in weightlifting.

Ahead of the Games, the IOC also relaxed its rules around protesting at the Games, although Sunday night’s podium protest by American shot putter Raven Saunders is being reviewed with sanctions possible.

“All the changes that we have introduced including the consultation with the athletes, are very important,” Dubi said.

“[We asked] what do you want to protect? What would you like to see be more flexible?

“And they came back and said, ‘OK, we want to protect the field of play, we want to protect the podium and the ceremonies, but find us more flexibility’.

“Of course, they always had the opportunity to say out loud what they thought in a press conference or a mixed zone but we have gone further and the same goes for any other walks of life.

“We have new sports because this is reflecting what happens on fields of play.

“The IOC being open to civil society and developments at large is what we are about.”

‘The Games belong to everyone’

Russia’s team of more than 330 athletes is constantly under the microscope given the nation was suspended for ongoing doping issues in 2019.

The team is not called Russia, it is referred to as ROC, or the Russian Olympic Committee, its uniforms are in the country’s colours but the anthem is not played at medal ceremonies.

There are those who believe no Russians should be allowed to compete given the country’s state-sanctioned doping program uncovered after the Sochi 2014 Games.

“For me, what it starts and finishes with is the rules and the decisions that are made by the authorities that have to make those decisions — whether we like it or not is a different story,” Dubi said.

“As far as I am concerned, any time you have a breach of rules, and you have those authorities that have to sanction any form of behaviour, that is what we go by and what you see here regarding the Russian Olympic Committee is what was decided. Not more, not less.”

On reflection, Dubi said the organisation of this most challenging Games has been “outstanding”, plus the addition of sports like surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing is one of the “biggest things for future engagement”.

“The Games belong to everyone, especially the younger generation, and when you give yourself the capabilities from a sport product standpoint but also creating all the right tools for engagement, it works.

“And what we see, the tremendous goodwill, the immense amount of support the athletes are having, and also the solidarity between the communities around the globe, I say this is exactly what we stand for, which is a movement that belongs to everyone.

“We are permeating more, right across the globe … we see it in the numbers.”

The IOC said figures after the first week of the Games showed 3.5 billion video views and hundreds of millions of social media posts.

“We said we would bring the world into the stadium, and this is what we do.”



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