The International Olympic Committee did the inevitable on Tuesday, postponing the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics that were supposed to begin in late July until sometime beyond this year “but not later than summer 2021.”
Team Canada can take a measure of credit for providing the first boot in the pants of the IOC that brought about the delay, with their announcement on Sunday that they were out of a 2020 Olympics. The change that they wrought has given a measure of certainty to athletes, sent an important message about putting public health ahead of personal and financial interests, and has likely saved some lives.
“It wasn’t safe,” to continue, said COC president Tricia Smith, simply, on Tuesday. All of that deserves praise. This was the right move, even if it took the IOC an appallingly long time to come to it.
The swells at the Swiss offices seemed like literally the last people on the planet to accept that barging ahead with preparations for a global sports gathering was a bad idea amid a global pandemic. Read the room, fellas.
But while it was the right call, there’s no telling what it will mean for these Olympics and beyond. It has been known for years that the Olympics became far too big for their own good. Will the coronavirus, and this delay, begin to knock them back to a more reasonable size?
At this point it is hoped that the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics will be a close facsimile of whatever they were going to be before COVID-10 knocked the world for a loop. The IOC’s statement on Tuesday said it hoped the “Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present.”
The flame, already in Japan for a torch relay that began awkwardly this month, will remain in that country. The Games themselves will still be called Tokyo 2020, even if they take place next year. That has the benefit of nice symbolism, a reminder of what the world (hopefully) overcomes to get to the point of a functioning Games, and It also allows organizers to not waste a whole bunch of t-shirts, plush toys and signage.
People take pictures with the Olympic Flame during a ceremony in Fukushima City, Japan, Tuesday, March 24, 2020.
Jae C. Hong/AP
The facilities are, obviously, all in place and will be a year from now. This will not be without its challenges. Ten of the 43 venues were intended to be temporary; they will have to be maintained, while mostly unused, for an extra 12 months. The athletes’ village, a cluster of new residential apartments that were to be converted into condominiums and sold after the Olympics, will now also be in limbo.
Other facilities like the press centre and certain venues that had non-sports functions — some events were to be held in a converted convention centre — will have to push back the bookings they were already taking for the months after the Games.
While these things are all manageable, especially in light of the sacrifices made in all sectors because of the pandemic, the larger question for Japan is the vast sums of money already spent on the Tokyo Olympics.
It was originally pitched as a US$7-billion event, and officially that number has already passed US$12-billion. Audits, though, have suggested the true cost is beyond US$26-billion, and that the official tally is artificially low because it excludes big-ticket infrastructure costs. This helps explain why the decision to postpone took so long: Japan is desperate to recoup some of that investment through the economic boom of the Games themselves.
Olympic rings monument at Rainbow Bridge, Odaiba, Tokyo. On Monday the IOC announced that the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics Games would be postponed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Yukihito Taguchi/USA TODAY
The question is whether future Olympic hosts will ever want to expose themselves to this kind of risk. The next two summer cities, Paris and Los Angeles, are theoretically working with budgets closer to Tokyo’s original plan, and the IOC itself has pivoted to promoting the concept of “sustainable” Olympics that re-use existing facilities where possible.
But whether that actually comes to pass is uncertain. Organizers reliably blow past their cost estimates for every Olympics, something that is bound to happen as the IOC adds events to an ever-expanding footprint. Keeping one infrastructure project on budget is tricky, doing it with 43 of them is a nightmare.
For Tokyo, the more pressing concern will be whether the anticipated economic spinoffs even come to pass. The number of visitors in 2021 — athletes, staff, tourists — will almost have to be smaller than it would have been in 2020, as everyone adjusts to new economic realities. Broadcasters and sponsors, the IOC’s lifeblood, will be looking at their Olympic investments and wondering what to do about an exposure that has been put off into next year.
A countdown clock signals the days until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games inside the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, March 24, 2020.
NNoriko Hayashi/Bloomberg
Consider Team Canada, which was out in front of all this, but has its own future to consider. Will its blue-chip sponsors, which include a national airline and a shopping-mall conglomerate, be willing to re-up the same level of support? Will the government?
COC chief executive David Shoemaker said on Tuesday that they received an “outpouring of support” from their marketing partners after their Sunday-night announcement, but these decisions will be played out country by country, each dealing with their own coronavirus fallout.
How many of them will send smaller Olympic delegations as priorities are reconsidered? How many will have to approach their Tokyo plans with an eye to Beijing 2022, now potentially happening just six months later?
A global celebration in Tokyo in 2021 is a worthwhile goal. And a big, flashy Olympics, same as it ever was, is a nice part of that idea. Whether it is realistic is another matter.
SUDBURY, Ont. – The Pittsburgh Penguins went “old school” on Sunday, getting three goals from Evgeni Malkin and two from Sidney Crosby to defeat the Ottawa Senators 5-2 in an NHL pre-season contest at Sudbury Community Arena.
The Senators had built a 2-1 first-period lead on goals from Nick Cousins and Tim Stutzle, but the Penguins’ veterans rallied to take a 3-2 lead into the third period, then added two more in the final frame despite being badly outshot 30-19.
Defenceman Kris Letang chipped in with two assists for the Penguins, who tallied twice on the power play. Malkin also had an assist for a four-point game.
Starting netminder Tristan Jarry stopped 24 of 26 shots for the Penguins before being replaced by Filip Larsson who made four saves.
Anton Forsberg played the entire game in net for the Senators, stopping 14 of 18 shots.
UP NEXT
Penguins: Visit the Detroit Red Wings on Monday.
Senators: Visit the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2024.
ROGERS, Ark. (AP) — Jasmine Suwannapura made a 12-foot eagle putt on the second hole of a playoff with Lucy Li to win the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship on Sunday.
Suwannapura — playing in the group behind Li — also eagled the par-5 18th in regulation to force the playoff at Pinnacle Country Club. They each birdied the 18th on the first extra hole.
Suwannapura shot a career-best 10-under 61, playing the back nine in 7-under 28, to match Li at 17-under 196. Tied for 25th entering the day, Li shot a tournament-record and career-best 60, making her third eagle of the round on 18.
“Lucy was not the easy player to play in a playoff with, so I’m really glad to play and stay calm and stay within myself, play my game,” said Suwannapura, who jumped into husband-caddie Michael Thomas’ arms after the winning putt. “Today happened, so I’m very happy.”
Suwannapura won her third LPGA Tour title, playing the final 22 holes without a bogey. The 31-year-old Thai player also won the 2018 Marathon Classic and teamed with Cydney Clanton to take the 2019 Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational.
“It’s been a long time, and there is a time that I think I probably not going to win again,” Suwannapura said. “But today everything just fall in the right place, right time. And we did it with my husband is even more special.”
Li, the 21-year-old American who played in the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at age 11, missed a chance for her first LPGA Tour victory.
“I had honestly no clue that this was going to happen,” Li said. “I did not think I was in it at all. I mean, after two three-putts in the first four holes I was just like, ‘I don’t know.′ And then some magic came and I shot 60. Even though I didn’t win, just this is the greatest thing.”
Sei Young Kim was a stroke back after a 63. She made a 20-footer for eagle on 18.
Savannah Grewal of Mississauga, Ont., was the top Canadian, finishing tied for 44th at 6 under. Maude-Aimee Leblanc of Sherbrooke, Que., finished tied for 58th at 5 under.
Mao Saigo (65) and Arpichaya Yubol (66) tied for fourth at 14 under, and second-round leader Ashleigh Buhai (69) was sixth at 13 under.
University of Arkansas sophomore Maria Marin topped the Razorbacks contingent in the field, closing with a 69 to tie for 17th at 10 under in her first tour start.
BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox honored longtime radio voice Joe Castiglione, who called his final game Sunday, with an on-field pregame ceremony.
The 77-year-old Castiglione, who was honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer with the Ford C. Frick Award, has been the team’s lead radio voice since 1983.
During the ceremony, the team played highlights of his calls over videos of the American League championship team in 1986, and Boston’s World Series title teams in 2004, ’07, ’13 and ’18 on the center-field scoreboard.
Members of those teams came onto the field during the ceremony. Hall of Famer Jim Rice highlighted the ’86 group and Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez was one of the ’04 former players.
Castiglione referred to his call ending the ’04 championship that broke an 86-year title drought, when he thanked the fans. It came on a ground ball back to pitcher Keith Foulke, who was also there to represent that team.
“I will miss being your eyes and ears,” he said. “For 42 years, all I can say is: Can you believe it!”
Asked how he felt making the call of his final out — a liner to center by Tampa Bay’s Richie Palacios that ended a 3-1 victory by the Red Sox, Castiglione said: “I was sort of numb. It sort of felt like the ninth inning in St. Louis in ‘04. … It still really hasn’t set in, probably won’t until next spring.”
Before the top of the eighth, the team ran a montage of his calls over highlights shown on the center-field scoreboard. When it was over, the entire Red Sox dugout emptied, with players, coaches and manager Alex Cora stepping onto the field, looking up and applauding toward him in the booth behind home plate.
“I had some moments, especially when Alex brought the players out,” Castiglione said.
Jackie Bradley, the 2018 ALCS MVP, caught a ceremonial first pitch from Castiglione.
“Forty-two years is a long, long time for someone to be working every single day to go through the struggles and the successes, the travel and the lifestyle, and always have a smile,” Martinez said. “Those are the kind of people that deserve all the respect that we are giving him today.”
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu handed him a proclamation declaring Sept. 29, 2024, as “Joe Castiglione Day” in Boston. Team President Sam Kennedy presented him with letters from Fenway Park’s infamous Green Monster that read: “CASTIG” in white with a green background color of the Monster.
Cora, a member of the ’07 team, was also on the field and Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow, representing the ’13 squad, was on the field as well.
Castiglione signed off like he does each season, reading part of A. Bartlett Giamatti’s “The Green Fields of the Mind.”
“I did right away, right after the game ended,” he said.
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This story has been corrected to show that Castiglione was honored with an award by the Hall of Fame, not inducted.
