Tokyo Olympics ... [no foreign fans] [no fans period]

[TN1965]

Olympic gymnastics qualification shake-up after events canceled

The United States, Russia and China were each given an extra entry to the Olympic women’s gymnastics competition in Tokyo on Wednesday after the coronavirus pandemic forced a shake-up in qualifying.

https://sports.yahoo.com/olympic-gym...143922846.html

This was expected. However, I didn't know the following.

A World Cup in Tokyo on May 4, which serves as a test event at the Tokyo Olympic venue, is still on. Simone Biles is expected to compete there in what could be her first meet since the October 2019 Worlds.

[Conor Dary]

I'm missing something there. Certainly they're not trying to inject 5 people from one syringe!


OK, we're officially EFFED. That MUST be too late a start to pull off the OG safely.

It's not the same syringe for the first 5..it's posted elsewhere that it is a special syringe to get out the last bit....

Thing is, the FDA’s approval for a sixth dose came with a caveat: "Low dead-volume syringes and/or needles can be used to extract six doses from a single vial,” the agency’s updated fact sheet says. “If standard syringes and needles are used, there may not be sufficient volume to extract a sixth dose from a single vial."

https://www.fiercepharma.com/manufac...purring-supply

[Conor Dary]

Meanwhile....in the Financial Times...


Pressure mounts on Olympics chief to quit

Sexist comments about women continue to dominate public debate



ROBIN HARDING, LEO LEWIS AND KANA INAGAKI — TOKYO

Tokyo’s governor has refused to join a meeting with Yoshiro Mori, president of the city’s Olympic organising committee, who is under growing pressure to resign after making sexist remarks.

A recent poll by broadcaster TBS showed that 60 per cent of the public wanted Mori to go. Tokyo 2020 said it would hold a meeting on Friday to discuss his remarks.

Sponsors have also begun to speak out. In a rare statement issued at Toyota’s earnings yesterday, Akio Toyoda, chief executive, said: “We are disappointed by the recent comments from the President of TOCOG, which are contrary to the values that Toyota respects and supports.” One sponsor held board-level discussions about whether to pull out of the Olympics following Mori’s remarks, but opted to continue because of the work already put in, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

[TN1965]

Tokyo 2020 Olympics president to resign following sexist remarks

Tokyo 2020 Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori will step down after sexist remarks he made about women were leaked to Japanese media last week, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported Thursday, citing sources.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/11/s...hnk/index.html

[TN1965]

Saburo Kawabuchi, former football association chair, may head Tokyo Olympic committee

Saburo Kawabuchi, the former head of the Japan Football Association (JFA), may succeed Yoshiro Mori as president of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, multiple sources revealed on Feb. 11.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles...0m/0na/009000c

[Tuariki]

Saburo Kawabuchi, former football association chair, may head Tokyo Olympic committee

Saburo Kawabuchi, the former head of the Japan Football Association (JFA), may succeed Yoshiro Mori as president of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, multiple sources revealed on Feb. 11.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles...0m/0na/009000c

One feels like he is taking over as captain of the Titanic

[schigh]

Tokyo 2020 Olympics president to resign following sexist remarks

Tokyo 2020 Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori will step down after sexist remarks he made about women were leaked to Japanese media last week, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported Thursday, citing sources.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/11/s...hnk/index.html

Ironically, in the end, it was him who talked too much.

[Conor Dary]

One feels like he is taking over as captain of the Titanic

I had the same feeling...

[bad hammy]

Calling Admiral Dönitz . . .

[Conor Dary]

Meanwhile....The Economist...

Olympic gory
The obstacles to holding the Tokyo Olympics in July are daunting


Most Japanese would prefer to postpone the games again, or cancel them

It is a more complicated choice than it was last year. Covid-19 is better understood and more effectively controlled than before, making the games, at least without massed spectators, appear tantalisingly feasible. But holding them comes with big risks. An Olympic outbreak would symbolise hubris and incompetence, and could provoke a crisis for the prime minister, Suga Yoshihide, whose approval ratings are already sagging. The alternative is also unpalatable: the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has, at least so far, ruled out another postponement, meaning that if the Tokyo games are not held this year, they will probably be cancelled altogether. “They have presented [the games] as a symbol of victory over coronavirus, so if they cancel, it becomes a symbol of the Japanese government’s failure,” says Sone Yasunori of Keio University. “Both options are quite terrible.”

https://www.economist.com/asia/2021/...y-are-daunting

[TN1965]

NBC to air Tokyo Olympic Opening Ceremony in first live morning broadcast

NBC airs its first-ever live morning broadcast of an Olympic Opening Ceremony from Tokyo as part of unprecedented daylong network coverage of the first Friday of an Olympics on July 23.

https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2021/...-live-morning/

[Atticus]

NBC to air Tokyo Olympic Opening Ceremony in first live morning broadcast
NBC airs its first-ever live morning broadcast of an Olympic Opening Ceremony from Tokyo as part of unprecedented daylong network coverage of the first Friday of an Olympics on July 23.
https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2021/...-live-morning/

From everything I've seen, NBC REALLY thinks there will be a Games this summer.

[bad hammy]

From everything I've seen, NBC REALLY thinks there will be a Games this summer.

Sounds like a classic case of Irrational Exuberance . . .

[Atticus]

Irrational Exuberance . .

aka . . . Bitcoin!

[18.99s]

NBC has over a billion dollars on the line for this Olympics. If they have to spend a quarter-billion to ensure the Olympics will happen, they'll do it, even if that includes signing contracts for thousands of doses of the vaccine and carrying it on private jets to athletes in countries where vaccine distribution is lagging.