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

[Steele]

A few people that I have talked to that don't consume a lot of media, and therefore aren't aware of the OG's (lack of warm) reception by the Japanese citizenry, nor every political actor swinging for the fences for their 15 minutes of fame, generally feel bad for the host country and the athletes. They think Japan is doing their best to put on a quality Games with a smile, even if the stands are empty, and they feel for the athletes that are putting up world class performances for a couple dozen spectators.

[TN1965]

'It is really biased': Former Japanese Olympian slams host's coverage of female athletes (yahoo.com)

The Japan Olympics’ new gender equality monitor said Monday she’s been watching her country's coverage of the Games and doesn’t like what she’s been hearing.

“When it comes to sports, it is really biased when it comes to gender,” said Naoko Imoto, who is also a former Olympic swimmer.

[TN1965]

NBC's broadcast of the Tokyo Olympic Games opening ceremony drew 16.7 million viewers, the smallest U.S. television audience for the event in the past 33 years, according to preliminary data from Comcast-owned NBCUniversal on Saturday.

Across all platforms, including NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app, 17 million people watched the ceremony, NBCUniversal said in an email.

The streaming audience on those platforms grew 76% from the 2018 PyeongChang opening ceremony and 72% from the 2016 Rio opener, reflecting a change in viewing habits.

Friday's audience reflects a steep drop, despite difficult comparisons with previous opening ceremonies when viewers had fewer streaming options.

The Tokyo opener TV audience declined 37% from 2016, when 26.5 million people watched the Rio de Janeiro Games opener, and 59% from 2012, when 40.7 million people watched the London ceremony.


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-tok...231950728.html

Olympics Opening Ceremony Draws 56 Percent of TV Viewers in Tokyo – The Hollywood Reporter

The Japanese public may bedeeply ambivalent about the 2020 TokyoOlympics, but curiosity definitely won out for public broadcaster NHK during the Games’ opening ceremony on Friday.

TV viewership for the ceremony averaged 56.4 percent in Japan’s Kanto region, which includes the capital of Tokyo and its surrounding areas — the highest ratings for the event since the previous Tokyo Olympics were held in 1964.

[Conor Dary]

Sixteen more people related to the Tokyo Olympics have tested positive for COVID-19, including three athletes from overseas, bringing the total since the beginning of this month to 148, games organizers said Monday.

The three athletes were not staying at the athletes' village, the organizers said. The 13 are eight games-related officials, one of whom was living in the village, four contractors and a member of the organizing committee. Of the 16, 10 were from overseas.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2...rganizers.html

[TN1965]

Olympics fans gather defying calls to stay home (yahoo.com)

Despite officials carrying posters asking fans not to gather along the race course, many turned out for a chance to watch international athletes ride past.

[runningforpi]

For NBC's coverage which is what the article is about and not any other network's coverage, Phelps is a monumentally bigger loss than Bolt. First is that he's American...although Bolt had transcended that a bit. Phelps was also on the TV every night for I believe 8 days. I also don't see Serena as any much of a large Olympic loss. Tennis has never been a featured Olympic event

They're also trying to play up Noah Lyles which I don't get. He's competing in what is a bit of a lesser T&F event....as compared to the 100m for instance....and it's towards the end of the program. If the 200m was at the beginning of the track schedule and he's on the 4x100m, NBC can spend a week pumping him up. That's not the case.

In the context about the article being specifically about NBC, what was written makes sense. Initially, I thought NBC was being referenced as the US broadcaster, not necessarily that the article was about the “NBC olympics”.

Bear in mind, I’m watching the Olympics via Eurosport and a couple of my local national channels.

interesting the focus on Noah Lyles. From a marketing standpoint, if not interested in the m100 meters, I feel like NBC might get more mileage out of focusing on the Rai Benjamin/Karsten Warholm matchup 🤷🏽♀️

[Conor Dary]

Meanwhile....the Financial Times...

One poll of US Olympians and hopefuls in 2001 suggested two-thirds feared their future after retirement and 43 per cent had trouble entering the workforce. Another, by the UK’s Professional Players Federation, showed half of former athletes did not feel in control of their lives two years after their careers ended, according to a BBC State of Sport investigation in 2018. “It’s never too early to prepare for that jump,” says Mayi Cruz Blanco, head of sport solutions for recruitment agency Adecco, which works with the International Olympic Committee on career development for athletes. “But more often than not, athletes don’t have the awareness of that moment.”

Gold Rush recalls how Britain successfully applied a ruthless business approach to its quest for Olympic medals, after the failures of the 1990s. It worked but I couldn’t help thinking of the downside: improved funding for stars means many athletes now dedicate all their time to training, and even less to developing skills and an identity outside sport. Some may retire even less well-equipped for the working world than their part-time Olympian predecessors.

[18.99s]

NBC's broadcast of the Tokyo Olympic Games opening ceremony drew 16.7 million viewers, the smallest U.S. television audience for the event in the past 33 years, according to preliminary data from Comcast-owned NBCUniversal on Saturday.

It was also NBC's first ever live morning broadcast of the opening ceremonies, so it should be expected to have fewer viewers than the afternoon and evening broadcasts of previous Olympics.

[NotDutra5]

Meanwhile...

Typhoon heads for eastern Japan, may make landfall on July 27

A typhoon is expected to approach east and northeastern Japan from the Pacific around Tuesday and may make landfall in areas including Tokyo that is hosting the Olympics, the weather agency said Sunday, as it warned of heavy rain, stormy winds and high waves.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2...l-on-tues.html

This will be disappointing for some but the storm is now projected to head north of Tokyo...the city is currently completely outside the cone of uncertainty....and it is expected to have winds of 45 mph or thereabouts where it does hit.

Some water events such as kayaking have been rescheduled.

[Conor Dary]

The first COVID-19 infection of an athlete at the Tokyo Olympics after competing has been confirmed, games organizers said Sunday, amid public concerns about the further spread of the coronavirus.

Dutch rower Finn Florijn tested positive for COVID-19 after competing in his heat at the Olympics on Friday, according to the organizers.

The 21-year-old, who had been staying at the athletes' village, forfeited Saturday's repechage race in single sculls and is self-isolating at a separate location.

The Olympic organizing committee said it is working to determine whether anyone has been in close contact with Florijn, who they previously said was unable to row for "medical reasons." A separate member of the Dutch rowing team, not an athlete, tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2...-19-cases.html

The committee reported a total of 10 new infections related to the Olympics on Sunday, including another athlete from overseas, bringing the total since the beginning of this month to 132.

[Conor Dary]

Meanwhile...

Typhoon heads for eastern Japan, may make landfall on July 27

A typhoon is expected to approach east and northeastern Japan from the Pacific around Tuesday and may make landfall in areas including Tokyo that is hosting the Olympics, the weather agency said Sunday, as it warned of heavy rain, stormy winds and high waves.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2...l-on-tues.html

[gm]

https://www.infobae.com/aroundtherin...medium=twitter

Crowds for thee, but not for meeeeeee.....

[Conor Dary]

Meanwhile...

After Tokyo, we should bring the Olympic charade to an end

Not that these Games and the IOC’s standing weren’t deeply flawed prior to the pandemic. As at every Olympics, costs have spiralled and Japan will have to stump up more than $30bn (£22bn), of which the IOC will not be paying a cent. Along the way there has been the usual combination of expensive white-elephant stadiums, allegations of corruption in the bid process and in allocating contracts, and the forced eviction of citizens from their homes.



Sold as the “Recovery Games” – celebrating the nation’s revival after the 2011 tsunami and nuclear meltdown – Tokyo’s softball competition began this week in Fukushima, a region in vertiginous demographic decline, still awash in nuclear waste.

Paris, Los Angeles and now Brisbane are signed up to host the next three summer Olympics, and the IOC continues to argue that its Games catalyse economic growth and leave positive urban and sporting legacies. Yet the research is unequivocal: with the exception of Barcelona 1992, no modern Games has raised a host city’s rate of economic growth, levels of skills and employment, tourist income or productivity.

Similarly, the claim that the Olympics raise the level of sporting participation is a myth. After London 2012 – the only Games to actually take the proposition seriously – activity rates fell because the government’s austerity programme led to the widespread closure of sporting facilities.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...acing-athletes

[NotDutra5]

NBC's broadcast of the Tokyo Olympic Games opening ceremony drew 16.7 million viewers, the smallest U.S. television audience for the event in the past 33 years, according to preliminary data from Comcast-owned NBCUniversal on Saturday.

Across all platforms, including NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app, 17 million people watched the ceremony, NBCUniversal said in an email.

The streaming audience on those platforms grew 76% from the 2018 PyeongChang opening ceremony and 72% from the 2016 Rio opener, reflecting a change in viewing habits.

Friday's audience reflects a steep drop, despite difficult comparisons with previous opening ceremonies when viewers had fewer streaming options.

The Tokyo opener TV audience declined 37% from 2016, when 26.5 million people watched the Rio de Janeiro Games opener, and 59% from 2012, when 40.7 million people watched the London ceremony.


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-tok...231950728.html

This is more of a general viewing comment than anything else. A comparison of ratings for anything on TV, streaming, etc. to "yesterday" which encompasses anything about 4 years old and back is pretty stupid. Unless your 85 years old, you probably watch "TV" completely differently than you once did. At one time, you almost had to watch the Olympics. If you tuned into NBC at all you were watching it and there weren't a ton of other choices. Now many people never even look at the networks so we are not getting like comparisons at all.

We can say the same under the same type of logic for virtually any programming which is out there sports related or not. There are simply many many more choices these days and that is going to reflect in the ratings.

[NotDutra5]

I know these Axios pieces are written from a US-centric perspective, but I would think that Usain Bolt is a bigger loss in terms of popularity than Michael Phelps. Also, Simone Biles is always going to be a bigger (Olympic) story than either Serena Willams or SCR.

For NBC's coverage which is what the article is about and not any other network's coverage, Phelps is a monumentally bigger loss than Bolt. First is that he's American...although Bolt had transcended that a bit. Phelps was also on the TV every night for I believe 8 days. I also don't see Serena as any much of a large Olympic loss. Tennis has never been a featured Olympic event

They're also trying to play up Noah Lyles which I don't get. He's competing in what is a bit of a lesser T&F event....as compared to the 100m for instance....and it's towards the end of the program. If the 200m was at the beginning of the track schedule and he's on the 4x100m, NBC can spend a week pumping him up. That's not the case.