It is the second time the Summer Olympics are being held in Tokyo. The first time it played host city was in 1964, and it was the first time the Games were beamed to the world, live via satellite. In 2013, they won again the bid to host the 2020 Olympics.
Until recently, the selection process in choosing the host city for the Olympics was an elaborate and highly competitive exercise. The next host city is normally chosen seven years before the next Summer Games. Major cities from all over the world compete with each other in a bidding process that ends with a vote by the members of the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The bid is basically a proposal detailing why they want to host the Games and how they plan to make it happen: the finances, venues of the various sports and lodging of the athletes, logistics, environmental impact, and more. The bid also has to ensure that the city can accommodate an array of international journalists and sports fans. They need to pass through strict “scrutiny” and vetting to make sure they have what it takes to mount such a mammoth event. The IOC selection process takes ten months to finish! The cities that hurdle the first obstacle become candidate cities. The IOC deliberates and, after naming the winning city, asks it to pay a $150,000 fee. The 7-year leeway is deemed enough time to start the tedious preparations.
Japan is known for its strict code of discipline, courtesy, precision, industriousness, leadership, prosperity, and culture. Tokyo is the perfect choice to host this year’s Summer Games.
How much money does a candidate city need to host the Olympics?
When Japan decided to bid, they were told by the organizers that it would cost them around US$7 billion to mount the Games. However, Japan has already spent more than US$15 billion.
So why would any city in the world spend such a huge amount of money on a 16-day event? Cities around the world do due diligence before bidding and have calculated the returns on their investments, mostly from sports fans and exclusive rights to air the games. Jobs are created, tourism in the country is boosted, and their economy gains!
Japan now has the distinction of hosting two Summer Olympics!
5,151 athletes competed in the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics. It is less than half of the 11,091 athletes expected to participate this time around.
However, the 2020 Olympics had to be put on hold due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. It put a shadow over the earlier lucrative projections of Japan. The Games finally opened on July 23, 2021 but are still known as the 2020 Summer Games. Strict COVID-19 testing and isolation were observed at the Olympic Village.
Sports as a platform for peace
Recently, IOC President Thomas Bach visited Hiroshima while Vice President John Coates took part in similar events in Nagasaki. Both cities were struck by US atomic bombs at the end of World War II. The IOC duo used their visits to promote the first day of the Olympic Truce, a tradition from ancient Greece that allows competitors and spectators from conflicting countries to travel to the Games in peace. This idea was revived by the IOC and was supported by the United Nations in the 1990s.
Bach said Pierre de Coubertin, the French educator and historian, who founded the International Olympic Committee, and the Father of the modern Olympic Games, had seen the Olympics as a way to “promote peace among nations and peoples,” when he revived the Games 125 years ago. “This peace mission continues to be at the heart of the Olympic Games,” he said. “Today, I am here to remember all the people who are remembered in this very place. I am here to reaffirm our peace mission and to pay our respects to Hiroshima as a city of peace.”
Sports is not just a form of discipline to reach perfection or a way to be physically fit with a strong immunity. Despite its competitive nature, its ideals of excellence, friendship, and respect unite and help people to build relationships that lead to the realization of universal fraternity.
Olympic venues, dates, and activities may change but what stays the same is the Games being a platform for peace. Despite the daunting uncertainties, let us remember that the fruit of peace-building is absolutely priceless. May the Olympics always be a way towards this beautiful and noble mission.
Long live the Olympians!
Robert Samson
