125th IOC Session: 2020 Olympic host & new Olympic sport

[August]

The 2020 Olympic host and the new sport for those games will be elected this weekend at the IOC session in Buenos Aires.

The candidate cities are Istanbul, Tokyo, and Madrid. In my opinion Istanbul would be the most interesting host city, they have never hosted Olympics and not many other big sports events. But they've had doping scandals recently and the demonstrations didn't give a good image of the country.

Madrid is my favourite bid, they have most venues existing. Madrid would be also my favourite when it comes to Olympic tennis, even though I don't care much about tennis at the Olympics. But I don't think the games should be given to a country in a financial crisis, like Spain. And also Spain had a doping scandal, the Fuentes case. I think IOC should fight against doping and not give Olympics to countries with doping scandals like Spain and Turkey.

So my favourite is Tokyo. I feel Japan is the best country of the bidders to host the games. Tokyo also has a good bid in my opinion. They don't have nearly as many existing venues as Madrid but it's the most compact project.

The host city will be elected on Saturday and on Sunday they will elect the new sport. The candidate sports are wrestling (actually an old sport), squash, and baseball/softball. I want wrestling to stay in the Olympics, it's one of the most traditional Olympic sport since the ancient games. But unless it remains in the games, I'd like squash to get into Olympics I think it would be a great addition, an old, traditional sport which lacks an event that gets much worldwide attetion. Olympics would be that. Many tennis players support squash's aim to get into the games.

 

[tented]

Great idea for a thread, August.

First, the doping component shouldn't be a factor. That can happen anywhere; it's more a matter of who has been caught, than where they were. Using your logic, every city in the US should not be considered a candidate.

My favorite is Istanbul. It is the most interesting choice between them, and has never hosted before.

Spain hosted them not too long ago in Barcelona, so it feels too soon to go back. Tokyo hasn't hosted them since 1964, but I have a problem with Japan in general these days because of Fukushima, and its still evolving problems. It's getting worse and worse. Read The Guardian and the BBC News for the newest information. The US media barely mention it. If nothing else, as an athlete I would be worried about radiation.

As for picking a new sport, I don't understand how wrestling could be considered new since it's currently an official sport? Is it actually a matter of deciding whether or not to get rid of it?

 

[August]

There are reasons for why I think doping scandals should have a role in the election.

Turkey's doping cases almost look like a national doping program. (I hope it wasn't to boost Turkey's image as a sports nation before the Olympic host election.) And there is often speculation about a championship host country having a doping program. We Finns know that, six Finnish skiers were caught from doping during the Nordic Skiing Worlds in Finland in 2001. And that affected to getting Worlds again to Finland. We had to apply for the 2013 and '15 champs before we get the '17 champs. International Skiing Federation was afraid of another doping scandal. I think Japan would be the least likely host country to have an doping scandal.

Spain's doping scandals were different. Drs. Fuentes and del Moral being Spanish doesn't mean Spanish athletes are dopers. But destroying the blood bags, what Andy Murray called a cover-up, didn't leave a good image of Spanish anti-doping culture. I think Olympic hosts being required a proper anti-doping culture would help fighting against doping. A country may be willing to raise their profile with sports success (through doping) and hosting the Olympics. Requirement of a proper anti-doping culture would make national doping programs less common. (Similarly, I think also Olympic sports should be required to have a proper anti-doping culture.)

About the "new sport". Actually it's not necessarily a new sport. Wrestling was dropped from the program but then included among the candidates to be added to the games.

 

[tented]

About the "new sport". Actually it's not necessarily a new sport. Wrestling was dropped from the program but then included among the candidates to be added to the games.

I'm still not sure what you mean about it being dropped. If you look on the official Olympics website's list of sports, it's there:

http://www.olympic.org/sports

 

[August]

About the "new sport". Actually it's not necessarily a new sport. Wrestling was dropped from the program but then included among the candidates to be added to the games.

I'm still not sure what you mean about it being dropped. If you look on the official Olympics website's list of sports, it's there:

http://www.olympic.org/sports

It's in the 2016 games but it was dropped from the 2020 games. But it can be elected back to the 2020 games next weekend.

 

[tented]

About the "new sport". Actually it's not necessarily a new sport. Wrestling was dropped from the program but then included among the candidates to be added to the games.

I'm still not sure what you mean about it being dropped. If you look on the official Olympics website's list of sports, it's there:

http://www.olympic.org/sports

It's in the 2016 games but it was dropped from the 2020 games. But it can be elected back to the 2020 games next weekend.

Ah, now I understand. Thank you.

 

[britbox]

My choice would be Tokyo, with Istanbul second.

Spain is broke and it's not long enough since they last had the games.

 

[August]

About tennis venus, even though tennis is one of my least favourite sports during the Olympics.

I'd like Olympic tennis in Madrid. Spain are a successful tennis nation without a slam, Olympics would be their chance to have a big tennis event. And Caja Magica would obviously have clay courts during the Olympics. It'd be nice to have the Olympic tennis out of HCs.

On the other hand I doubt if all players want to go to clay between Wimby and USO. Especially as Madrid's proposed dates would be between Cincy and USO. Imagine the HC-clay-HC transition. Also Istanbul would be on those weeks, even though I think Istanbul would have HCs, probably DecoTurf. Still, players would have the USA-Eurasia-USA trip. Tokyo would host the games before the NA Masters events and Ariake Coliseum already has DecoTurf hard courts. I think it would have least withdrawals from tennis.

 

[August]

Tokyo and Istanbul to the 2nd voting round. Tokyo got most votes on the first round. Istanbul beat Madrid in a tiebreak for the second place on the 2nd round. Results of the 2nd round in about an hour.

Good to see Fuentes and del Moral's country didn't get the games. Hopefully the games will go to a country whose athletes have never been caught from doping at the Olympics instead of a country with 30 athletes being caught.

 

[August]

Tokyo got the games!

The best candidate won. I slightly preferred Madrid's concept with most venues existing but that aside, I think Tokyo was the best bid, the most compact one. And they had less weaknesses than Istanbul or Madrid.

 

[August]

Wrestling retained its Olympic status. A right decision if you ask me.

 

[Didi]

I'm happy for Tokyo. I was impressed how Japan organized the 1998 winter olympics, the 2002 football world cup, the 2006 basketball world cup and the 2007 world championships in athletics (Osaka). Every single event, morning/day/night session and stadium or arena was sold out. State of the art venues, lovely infrastructure and a huge passion around the cities with enthusiastic fans. And I think it's safe to say that with Tokyo hosting the 2020 games, Europe will be awarded with the 2024 games as there have never been 3 consecutive summer games outside of Europe. So I'm curious about the potential hosts and I'm leaning towards Paris, Madrid, a German city or even Istanbul. As for 2028, I think it's between North America and Australia. Toronto might get it, there are also a lot of US cities gunning for it.

 

[tented]

Excerpt of an article from the BBC News -- Science & Environment section:

"Fukushima leak is 'much worse than we were led to believe'"

The "worsening situation" at Fukushima has prompted a former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland to call for the withdrawal of Tokyo's Olympic bid.

In a letter to the UN secretary general, Mitsuhei Murata says the official radiation figures published by Tepco cannot be trusted. He says he is extremely worried about the lack of a sense of crisis in Japan and abroad.

This view is shared by Mycle Schneider, who is calling for an international taskforce for Fukushima.

"The Japanese have a problem asking for help. It is a big mistake; they badly need it."

 

[August]

The good thing regarding Fukushima is that now there's more pressure on Japan to get the situation under control. Think about how much attention the Beijing Olympics brought to China's human rights situation. And I'm not worried about radiation in Tokyo, that should be currently OK.

 

[tented]

The good thing regarding Fukushima is that now there's more pressure on Japan to get the situation under control. Think about how much attention the Beijing Olympics brought to China's human rights situation. And I'm not worried about radiation in Tokyo, that should be currently OK.

Bringing attention to something is vastly different than changing it. Do you really think China's record on human rights has improved? Or did they merely put a Band-Aid on it while they were in the spotlight in the period surrounding the Beijing Olympics?

 

[August]

The good thing regarding Fukushima is that now there's more pressure on Japan to get the situation under control. Think about how much attention the Beijing Olympics brought to China's human rights situation. And I'm not worried about radiation in Tokyo, that should be currently OK.

Bringing attention to something is vastly different than changing it. Do you really think China's record on human rights has improved? Or did they merely put a Band-Aid on it while they were in the spotlight in the period surrounding the Beijing Olympics?

Yeah, the Olympics didn't really improve human rights in China but I have higher hopes on Japan in the Fukushima case.