Times report: Japanese government has "privately concluded" that the 2021 Olympics will have to be cancelled

This is the type of 'journalism' I hate. They find a single anonymous person with an agenda and then quote them. But the quote in the article doesn't even make logical sense. The article says things have been decided but then the source's quote contradicts that. Here is the opening two paragraphs.

The Time wrote:

The Japanese government has privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics will have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus, and the focus is now on securing the Games for the city in the next available year, 2032.

According to a senior member of the ruling coalition, there is agreement that the Games, already postponed a year, are doomed. The aim now is to find a face-saving way of announcing the cancellation that leaves open the possibility of Tokyo playing host at a later date. “No one wants to be the first to say so but the consensus is that it’s too difficult,” the source said. “Personally, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

If they cancel, I'll be outraged. We just had an entire NFL season with no problem, the Champions league finished with no problem. Yes, having an Olympics with broadcasters and athletes has many more people but it's not that hard to vaccinate 11,000 athletes. It's really not that hard to vaccinate 1 million people as the US has already vaccinated 18 million.

If Japan is worried about Covid, the answer is simple. Require vaccination of all foreign athletes, fans and media members. To me, the Olympics should be held with fans. All of them.

And I'm fearful of Covid but let's be honest, the US is giving out a million vaccines a day. Even if that rate doesn't improve in six months we will have been able to give double doses to more than 100 million people which is everyone in this country over the age of 50

The Olympics are not that important in the scheme of things. The Japanese understand this.

2 million out of 7.5 billion have died from COVID. Big deal... Big sham.

Jimmio wrote:

The Olympics are not that important in the scheme of things. The Japanese understand this.

I mean this could be said for virtually any organized sports. And yet i still think its wrong, I happen to think that the Olympis is extremely important in the scheme of things. Can you think of any international event that captures the imagination of the whole world? The only thing that comes close is the World Cup? I really hope the Olympics happen this year -- could they not postpone to early Fall (like the Doha championships). I can't imagine COVID will be much of a concern by then.

Big Winner...Aliphine!!

He's telling the truth.

Jimmio wrote:

The Olympics are not that important in the scheme of things. The Japanese understand this.

I just don't get the point of defeatist attitudes like yours. Take a look at this editorial where a guy says a half-baked Olympics isn't worth having.

There is so much wrong with the editorial

1) ) He acts like the fact that a few people on the Australian open charter plane have gotten Covid sows the Japanese can't stage the Olympics. Why not? Yes, it won't be no risk. But I am no concerned at all if a few more totally healthy athletes get Covid-19 now that a vaccine exists. Entire NCAA football teams - with lots of obese men - got Covid and nothing bad happened.

Covid-19 is going to be around for years. Protect the elderly and health care workers and let us get back to our lives.

2) The article implies the sport will be bad as people haven't competed in a long time. The results of the last few months in track and field clearly show that's not true.

3) Even if the competition is 'half-baked' as he implies, he acts like there's no reason to have the Games. I totally disagree. Imagine if you've trained your whole life for it and this is your one shot. A half-baked games is better than none at all. So why have it a) To entertain the world b) To let the athletes have their moment as many won't be able to make it to 2024 and c) to let the Japanese get a return on their investment and to get the IOC its tv money.

That is fine. There is nothing “defeatist “about my attitude. Is it “defeatist” to acknowledge that the Olympics are not that important in the scheme of things? Not at all. This is where you lose me. You label another viewpoint defeatist when it is actually a victorious attitude. Human lives are more important than the Olympics. That is “defeatist” to you.

A fair question for you Rojo: would you be willing to give up your father’s life if it meant the Olympics would happen this year? What about Wejo’s life? Just trying to get a read on your values here.

One thing that's crazy about Covid-19 i s Japan has only had 347,000 cases. The US gets that many every two day (we are averaging like 185k per day).

There article indicates they have not been cancelled. Maybe we should wait until an official announcement before jumping to conclusions.

https://www.cbssports.com/olympics/news/tokyo-olympics-2021-ioc-officials-still-plan-for-summer-games-as-reports-of-possible-cancellation-emerge/

Sham 69 wrote:

He's telling the truth.

About what Hardloper?

Reported.

If Tokyo does cancel, the best plan of action is to go back to Rio

The government of Brazil does not care much about covid, so they’d be willing to host.

They have the infrastructure from last year, sure it would need remodeling, but it’s there.

IOC could secure a portion of the city where no one is allowed in or out and countries athletes are separated in compounds. Wouldn’t be ideal of course but then again nothing is nowadays

rojo wrote:

This is the type of 'journalism' I hate. THey find a single person with an agenda and then quote them. But the quote in the article odesn't even make total sense. The article says things have been decided but then the source's quote contradicts that.

Rojo thinks he knows better

rojo wrote:

This is the type of 'journalism' I hate. THey find a single person with an agenda and then quote them.

Bro, he works for you. And ironically, Gault is by far the closest you have to a journalist in staff. He's still a bit of a hack, but much less of a hack than you and your brother. I mean that in the nicest way. Not meant as a personal attack we all have our strengths. Writing isn't any of yours.

Fake news, no verifiable source. Calling it now. The Olympics will still happen!

Rude question. We all take risks as part of everyday life but somehow this one has been embedded in the brains of many die to the bombardment from the media. The young are nearly immune. The elderly and obese are at risk yet nobody is advocating for crash diets. We could have saved hundreds of thousands of lived in the US this year if people cared about their health. I starting to think that we will be wearing masks forever and restricting attendance at large events forever.

It would suck if the olympics are cancelled. I'd think Japan would have the capacity to vaccinate athletes as they arrived, if they weren't already vaccinated. They could require non vaccinated athletes to arrive a couple weeks early to be vaccinated and train in a closed off olympic village/facilities.

If the olympics are cancelled, it may be due to politics and not actual inability to mitigate safety issues.