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When the Olympic torch is lit in Tokyo, it will happen in a country that wishes the Games had been extinguished.
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No one really wants to host the Olympics, especially after Tokyo's nightmare. What does the future hold? – National Post
The Olympic movement is facing a real problem attracting cities who want to go through the trouble of hosting. ‘This is more than a challenge. This is teetering on the brink’
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With vaccination rates still low in Japan, the Olympics will be held as the city is in a state of emergency and there will be no spectators in the stands. Tourists won’t flock into the country, because international spectators were banned months ago, so there will be little to offset the more than $18-billion cost.
Public opinion is strongly against the Olympics, as a poll in May done by Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, had 83 per cent of respondents in favour of postponing or cancelling the Games.
COVID inflamed the sentiment in Tokyo, but the Olympics struggled in recent years to attract bidders. Next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing faced only Almaty, Kazakhstan as a challenger, after Stockholm, Oslo and Krakow, Poland all dropped out of the running.
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There were initially five bids for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, but after most cities dropped out, the International Olympic Committee gave the games to the French capital without a challenge and Los Angeles was awarded the 2028 Games in a deal to ensure there would be prestigious host cities for both events.
Brisbane, Australia is expected to be awarded the 2032 Olympics later this month, because it is the only city in the running leaving the International Olympic Committee little choice.
What Canada thinks
Many cities are becoming Olympic shy due to the cost of a major event. Toronto considered a 2024 bid, but Mayor John Tory and his council decided against it, while Calgary came close to bidding for the 2026 Winter Games, until a public referendum rejected the idea.
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Scott Hutcheson, who led the Calgary bid committee, said the 1988 Games left a lasting mark in Calgary and he pushed for the 2026 bid, because he saw the potential of repeating that success.
“If you were near Calgary, or you came to the games as a Canadian, there’s still a sense of enormous happiness and pride in what happened in ’88.”
Hutcheson said lingering questions about how the Games would have been financed pushed the public to the no side in the referendum. He said a financial deal between the city, province and the federal government came too late to change minds.
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“If we’d had three orders of government with a financial deal 90 days before the plebiscite, we could have told the story properly. But when you don’t have the financial deal, the naysayers were able to say, we’re going to be Montreal,” he said.
The Calgary bid imagined reusing and updating many of the facilities from 1988. Hutcheson said the IOC is encouraging these types of moves to make it easier for cities to bid.
“The IOC is dynamic and fluid and adapting and adopting as many new concepts as they can think of,” he said. “The IOC and the International Paralympic Games have completely conceded that they don’t want to be wasteful. They want to recycle.”
He argued massively expensive Games that appear to be a failure, like Sochi, often serve a dual purpose, as Russia was trying to develop the region as a new tourist destination, which required expense well above and beyond hosting the Olympics.
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What’s in it for hosts?
Andrew Zimbalist, a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts who has written extensively about the Olympics, said the IOC had to change its bidding process because cities don’t want to go through the expense or the disruption of a Games.
“In addition to just the dollars and cents, which can often lead to deficits of tens of billions of dollars, you’ve got environmental problems, you’ve got social disruption,” he said. “The market was so weak for posting the Games, the demand was so low, that they had to adjust.”
He said the movement is going to face a real problem attracting cities who want to go through the trouble of hosting.
“This is more than a challenge. This is teetering on the brink.”
In 2018, the IOC made formal changes to the future bidding process, allowing cities to speak with the IOC in advance of putting in a formal bid, streamlining the bid requirements and making other changes to attract more interest.
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Olympic bids now allow for greater distances between venues and allow committees to spread out the costs. Zimbalist said the problem with those changes is that they tend to reduce the price by a few billion dollars, but still leave cities with a hefty bill.
What must happen next
Zimbalist said he expects the Tokyo Olympics will make it even less compelling for cities to bid and the IOC will have to do more to undo the damage to its brand.
“Image is important in our world, more important than it should be, but nonetheless it has an impact and, and I think the image around the Tokyo Games has been difficult for the IOC to deal with and it will have an impact on them.”
He said it is time the IOC seriously consider permanent host cities, one for winter and another for summer, to reduce the waste and expense and give the Games a lasting legacy.
Beijing’s Games are going ahead in spite of concerns about China’s human rights record. Zimbalist said part of the problem preventing more substantive change is the IOC can always find someone to host an Olympics, even if they don’t deserve it.
“You could always scrape the bottom of the barrel. You could always find some city somewhere,” he said. “If you pledge them enough support, you probably can always find some city somewhere, but it gets more and more problematic and more and more expensive for the IOC.”
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Email: rtumilty@postmedia.com
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The French league’s legal commission has ordered Paris Saint-Germain to pay Kylian Mbappé the 55 million euros ($61 million) in unpaid wages that he claims he’s entitled to, the league said Thursday.
The league confirmed the decision to The Associated Press without more details, a day after the France superstar rejected a mediation offer by the commission in his dispute with his former club.
PSG officials and Mbappé’s representatives met in Paris on Wednesday after Mbappé asked the commission to get involved. Mbappé joined Real Madrid this summer on a free transfer.
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AP soccer:
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former football star Reggie Bush was at his Encino home Tuesday night when three male suspects attempted to break in, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
“Everyone is safe,” Bush said in a text message to the newspaper.
The Los Angeles Police Dept. told the Times that a resident of the house reported hearing a window break and broken glass was found outside. Police said nothing was stolen and that three male suspects dressed in black were seen leaving the scene.
Bush starred at Southern California and in the NFL. The former running back was reinstated as the 2005 Heisman Trophy winner this year. He forfeited it in 2010 after USC was hit with sanctions partly related to Bush’s dealings with two aspiring sports marketers.
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VANCOUVER – A fresh face has been gracing the B.C. Lions‘ highlight reels in recent weeks.
Midway through his second CFL campaign, wide receiver Ayden Eberhardt has contributed touchdowns in two consecutive games.
The 26-year-old wide receiver from Loveland, Colo., was the lone B.C. player to reel in a passing major in his team’s 37-23 victory over the league-leading Montreal Alouettes last Friday. The week before, he notched his first CFL touchdown in the Lions’ win over the Ottawa Redblacks.
“It’s been awesome. It’s been really good,” Eberhardt said of his recent play. “At the end of the day, the biggest stat to me is if we win. But who doesn’t love scoring?”
He’ll look to add to the tally Friday when the Leos (7-6) host the Toronto Argonauts.
Eberhardt signed with B.C. as a free agent in January 2023 and spent much of last season on the practice squad before cementing a role on the roster this year.
The six-foot-two, 195-pound University of Wyoming product has earned more opportunities in his second season, said Lions’ head coach and co-general manager Rick Campbell.
“He’s a super hard worker and very smart. He understands, has high football IQ, as we call it,” Campbell said.
The fact that Eberhardt can play virtually every receiving position helps.
“He could literally go into a game and we could throw him into a spot and he’d know exactly what he’s doing,” the coach said. “That allows him to play fast and earn the quarterback’s trust. And you see him making plays.”
Eberhardt credited his teammates, coaches and the rest of the Lions’ staff with helping him prepare for any situation he might face. They’ve all spent time teaching him the ins and outs of the Canadian game, or go over the playbook and run routes after practice, he said.
“I’ve played every single position on our offence in a game in the last two years, which is kind of crazy. But I love playing football,” he said. “I want to play any position that the team needs me to play.”
While B.C.’s lineup is studded with stars like running back William Stanback — who has a CFL-high 938 rushing yards — and wide receiver Justin McInnis — who leads the league in both receiving yards (1,074) and receiving TDs (seven) — versatility has been a critical part of the team’s back-to-back wins.
“I think we’ve got a lot of talented guys who deserve to get the ball and make big plays when they have the ball in their hands. So it’s really my job to get them the ball as much as possible,” said quarterback Nathan Rourke.
“I think that makes it easy when you can lean on those guys and, really, we’re in a situation where anyone can have a big game. And I think that’s a good place to be.”
Even with a talented lineup, the Lions face a tough test against an eager Argos side.
Toronto lost its second straight game Saturday when it dropped a 41-27 decision to Ottawa.
“We’ll have our hands full,” Rourke said. “We’ll have to adjust on the fly to whatever their game plan is. And no doubt, they’ll be ready to go so we’ll have to be as well.”
The two sides have already met once this season when the Argos handed the Lions a 35-27 loss in Toronto back on June 9.
A win on Friday would vault B.C. to the top of the West Division standings, over the 7-6 Winnipeg Blue Bombers who are on a bye week.
Collecting that victory isn’t assured, though, even with Toronto coming in on a two-game skid, Campbell said.
“They’ve hit a little bit of a rut, but they’re a really good team,” he said. “They’re very athletic. And you can really see (quarterback Chad Kelly’s) got zip on the ball. When you see him in there, he can make all the throws. So we’re expecting their best shot.”
TORONTO ARGONAUTS (6-6) AT B.C. LIONS (7-6)
Friday, B.C. Place
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: The Lions boast a 4-1 home record this season, including a 38-12 victory over the Redblacks at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria, B.C., on Aug. 31. The Argos have struggled outside of BMO Field and hold a 1-5 away record. Trips to the West Coast haven’t been easy for Toronto in recent years — since 2003, the club is 4-14 in road games against B.C.
CENTURION: B.C. defensive back Garry Peters is set to appear in his 100th consecutive game. The 32-year-old from Conyers, Ga., is a two-time CFL all-star who has amassed 381 defensive tackles, 19 special teams tackles and 16 interceptions over seven seasons. “Just being on the field with the guys every day, running around, talking trash back and forth, it keeps me young,” Peters said. “It makes me feel good, and my body doesn’t really feel it. I’ve been blessed to be able to play 100 straight.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
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