2020, uh, 21, uh, who knows Tokyo Olympics thread

My guess is there will be plenty of forfeitures, walkovers - DQs etc. I'm hoping they are doing A and B samples to guard against false positives, - and heck we haven't even talked about the PEDs. There might be a few situations where no medals are awarded due to a double forfeit or whatever.

 

freedum, nobudduh tellz meh whut ta do, etc etc

 

It bugs me that Layden won't be covering the Olys for SI. Used to enjoy SI's mega-preview issue where they predicted all the medalists, did about a dozen features on athletes, a feature on the host city and several mini-profiles about lesser known athletes, or facts about the Games. Always a good read. This year, I know Biles, Lillard and Durant, I guess Ladecky? Couldn't name a sprinter if my life depended on it, or a decathlete. Maybe it will be okay - the doom and gloom/these Games are gonna suck stories always get a lot of play until the Games get going because you have a thousand journos with nothing else to write about but their crappy hotel rooms, the traffic on the way to the venues and the disgusting free food they are provided.

 

Olympic adjacent stories about federations telling women what to wear while competing …

Norwegian women’s beach handball team fined for not wearing bikini bottoms

Paralympian Olivia Breen says official called her shorts 'too short'

 

LOL

 

Can you imagine training your whole life for the Olympics and making it but there are no fans

 

No fans are the least of the worries. In the US, the biggest argument is over how to get people to take the vaccine. In some countries it’s when are they going to have enough to get it to everyone. There are going to be athletes who will be unvaccinated because they can’t get it. That means the worry is, as we’re seeing, will a bunch of them come down with Covid and God forbid one or more dies or has a lifetime of health issues. It is wildly irresponsible of the IOC to let these continue. But I get that these athletes have trained for five years or more for this chance. Many will never see this again. I sympathize. That isn’t the calculus by Japan and the IOC. It’s all about money. There’s so much money that will be lost by a cancellation. It isn’t health concerns or about how much athletes will lose. It’s all about the Dollars/Euros/Yen that are about to be lost if this goes south.

 

Yeah, I mentioned earlier that this really does make me sad...no fans in the stands means no family and friends sharing in your brightest moment after sharing in your struggle for years. IT really sucks.

 

Yes, but I think it's worth noting that for the average Olympian's family or just fans in general, trans-oceanic travel was a logistical and financial impossibility up until, what, the 1970s or 80s? And not counting the maybe 10-20% (if that) of Olympians whose families are well-to-do residents of Western democracies, that's probably still the case, COVID restrictions or not.

 

Talk about your Polish jokes ... but no one is laughing.

 

Poland HAS sent six swimmers home.