I love the Olympics, which is probably clear to people who’ve have read this site for a while. And the Summer Olympics are upon us, only a week away. So, as you might imagine, the date has been the focus of my calendar for a while. There’s a point to all this, though I don’t think it’s likely what it will appear to be. So, bear with me. As I said, I love the Olympics. I don’t just watch them, I vegetate in front of the TV during the Games -- Summer or Winter -- and do my best not to schedule anything in my life that would intrude with watching them. When NBC began to extend their coverage to the "Family of NBC Stations," and TV coverage was almost all day on half a dozen channels, it was like I was in heaven, albeit with sensory overload. It doesn't matter if they're big or off-beat small, I'll watch most anything. Sometimes, the smaller and more off-beat the better, since you don't get to see it anytime else. (Pretty much the only events that really don't make the cut are synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics and ice dancing.) In 1984, Los Angeles held the Summer Olympics, and it was going to be a zoo. Friends asked me if I'd be leaving town to avoid the mass of humanity, and I looked at them as if they were nuts. Leave town?? I'd been waiting my life for this, and it was an ethereal joy. I went to about eight events -- it didn't matter if they were big or off-beat small. I went to the Coliseum for track-and-field and saw Carl Lewis win two Gold Medals. And I also went to Greco-Roman wrestling (yes, Greco-Roman Wrestling) and drove all the way down to Anaheim. (I went because a friend lived nearby, and I could park at his home and walk to the Anaheim Convention Center.) Friends thought I was nuts -- Greco-Roman Wrestling?? -- though it turned out to be one of the highlights of the Games when American Jeff Blatnick, a Hodgkins survivor, beat the world champion, previously undefeated (I believe) and massively heavy favorite, for the Gold Medal – and immediately fell to his knees in joy, awe and thanks, one of the iconic moments of the Games. Which I took my own picture of. I was able to get tickets to Men’s Gymnastics – not because it was an event I was so anxious to see (though one of the most popular events), but because I was able to walk to it at Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus. It was a long walk, but I wanted to be able to say that I actually walked to an Olympic event. And I attended the start of the first-ever women’s marathon, held early on a Sunday morning at the track of Santa Monica City College, complete with a special ceremony to honor the occasion.. After which the runners left the stadium and took off on their 26-mile journey around the city. That's American Joan Benoit -- the ultimate Gold Medal winner -- in the front and center, in gray, with her white hat on backwards, right about the man's head intruding into my shot. And then I took off myself for my car and quickly drove towards the Pacific Ocean, parked and found a spot where I could see the women running past, along Ocean Ave. And again, that's Joan Benoit. She's much easier to spot here, because she surprised everyone by running so fast so early that she broke far away from the pack, everyone sure she'd burn herself out -- except that she didn't and maintained that massive lead and won the race with no one even near her. There she is again, right behind the lead vehicle -- look down the road behind her, there's no one in sight. And wouldn't be for a while. So, yes, I absolutely love the Olympics. And I think that it's borderline insane that they're holding them this year. Even after having canceled them in 2020. The people of Japan don’t want them held. A poll was taken several months back, and by an overwhelming margin, the public wanted the Games canceled. And that was before COVID-19 has a huge spike in the country. The fourth spike that Japan has held, and the biggest by far. How bad is the pandemic in Japan right now? Last week, the Olympic organizers announced that spectators would not be allowed for most events! Let me repeat that – the pandemic is so horrible in Japan at the moment that spectators will not be allowed in the venues. By the way, I suspect many people don’t even know this. It hasn’t been publicized much and there hasn’t been much coverage. NBC has been airing its regular promos for the start of the Games on July 23, and there’s been a huge amount of attention on the great runner Sha-Carri Richardson being banned for the U.S. team for marijuana use. But almost nothing about how there will be zero spectators allowed at almost all the venues. Because the pandemic spike is so bad. Personally, I think that’s one of the big stories in the world and should not only have been a front page headline, but have continued to be a story every day. But unless you pay attention to such things or caught the story in passing when it was announced, you wouldn’t know. But the Olympic organizers and Japan are going forward with the Games. I suspect there’s so much money at stake, and cancelling the Olympics twice (and especially this close to the starts) might put the Japan Games in permanent jeopardy. While I wouldn’t be surprised if NBC had some input, given how much they have invested, I’m sure they have insurance coverage. And I would think it’s mainly the IOC and Japan who the decision came down to. But whoever made the decision and however it was made, it’s nuts. I’ll watch, since it’s the Olympics and that’s what I do. Whether I’ll watch as much if there are no fans in the stands and the whole thing is too eerie, I don’t know. I suspect I will – because it’s the Olympics and that’s what I do. But what I do is beside the point. The point is that it’s nuts to be holding the Olympics when the infectious pandemic is so terrible you can’t even have spectators at most of the venues. I certainly hope the athletes will be safe, obviously. And I think there’s much that can be done to keep them that way, with most (if not all, because of the conditions) staying in the Olympic Village which can be locked down. And with regular COVID testing of the athletes, team management, Olympic officials, staff and journalists, keeping it all to as much a minimum as possible. But “minimum” is a flexible word, since it still with be in the tens of thousand of people, I’m sure. And that doesn’t include the vendors bringing food and dealing with all the necessary amenities. For that matter, I hope that all of these people – all of them – are required to have had two vaccinations before they can be involved. But even if all the athletes can be kept safe, and are, this is still nuts. I utterly love the Olympics. I dearly missed watching them last year. I’ve been anxiously waiting to watch them this year, and have been watch the Team USA trials for the past month. But the Games should be canceled. And it should be a banner headline story why and that they haven’t been .
4 Comments
John
7/16/2021 09:13:57 am
It’s a fact I learned many years ago and it still holds true (perhaps even more so today): Follow The Money!
Reply
Robert Elisberg
7/16/2021 09:13:15 pm
John, thanks for your note and comments. Yes, clearly "the money" is at the heart of this. But the odd thing is that as much money as will be made from the TV contract-- there will be a massive amount of money lost by not delaying it again and so missing out not only on ticket sales, but ALL the huge money from tourism -- hotels, food, souvenirs, traveling around the country.
Reply
Douglass Abramson
7/16/2021 07:27:19 pm
Assuming he hasn't passed away in the last couple of years, there is one resident of Tokyo who is enjoying the peril the games have been in for the last eighteen months. When they went to build the stadium for the first Tokyo games, they evicted a family who had lost their original home during the firebombing of Tokyo during WWII. They rebuilt after the war and ran a small business out of the front of the house until the were evicted and their property was turned into a parking lot in 1963 for National Stadium and the 1964 Games. In 2013, he was informed that the apartment building he was moved to at the time was going to be torn down, along with National Stadium, for a replacement for National Stadium as part of the building program for the 2020 Games. He might be the only person in history to loose his home twice, to the Olympic Games.
Reply
Robert Elisberg
7/16/2021 09:17:27 pm
Douglass, yes, traffic was non-existent. I remember an NBC report where the journalist was in a close-up, standing on an overpass above a freeway, and saying there were concerns that Los Angeles would see traffic like it's never seen before. And then the camera pulled back and you saw a near-empty freeway -- to which he then said, "And they're right, Los Angeles has never seen traffic this empty."
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
Categories
All
|
© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2024
|