The 2021 Olympics, Tokyo

The 2021 Olympic Games

The 2021 Olympics have now come to a close, and with the Paralympics starting up next week, it is a great time to reflect on an Olympic game unlike any in history. In the midst of an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, did the games manage to maintain a safe yet prosperous event?

Health and Safety in The 2021 Olympic Games

Health and safety measures have always been of great importance in the Olympic games. One such example can be seen, when the swimming pools are sprayed with water in between dives. In spraying water, it creates ripples and helps the divers see where the surface is before they dive. This is done as a safety measure to minimise risk. This year however, the games have really shone a light on the importance of health and safety. Based on health and safety alone, mixed reactions on the event prevailed, as over half of Japanese respondents (53%) thought that the Olympics should have been postponed again.

Japan however, despite a sharp rise in cases and declaring a state of emergency in Tokyo, had already moved forward with the 2020 Olympics after a nearly a year’s delay. This game implemented strict COVID-19 protocols that were set in stone for not only competitors but the coaches and journalists attending the games as well. Australian olympian Tilly Kearns, documented on her TikTok only some of a few rigorous safety measures that were implemented in the olympian village dining hall. Seen in the video were the use of gloves for touching everything, plastic cubicles that separated the players from each other while eating and a team rule of only ten minutes to eat to minimise exposure. Other safety measures included the mandatory use of a mask at all times, new medical facilities, and residential quarters providing disposable cardboard frames and mattresses made of polyethylene. Additionally, a bubble isolation was set up in the village with participants undergoing frequent covid – 19 testing, and over 624,000 screening tests done.

With the protocols and measures laid out, the International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach had reassured the public, saying that the testing and quarantine protocols created, would leave no risk at all of the participants infecting residents in Japan. While opposing viewpoints by others including that of Kenji Shibuya, the former director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College London, state that such statements only confuse people as actual conditions were the opposite.

Despite the various statements however, and the precautions they took, the cumulative total cases still stood at 430, since the beginning of July. A leading health advisor to the international Olympic Committee has said that the pandemic has been kept at bay and, data from a survey backs this statement as a majority of people in Japan agreed that Tokyo did its best (49.3 percent). With the Paralympics starting up this week, and more events on their way in the future, it is critical to thoroughly plan what health and safety measures are in place, and how they will be carried out to battle the ongoing covid pandemic. This also serves as a great lesson for those watching in the UK, to continuously be cautious, hygienic and wear your mask!

REFERENCES

https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/survey-tokyo-olympics-did-its-best-despite-the-covid-19-pandemic-082021
https://web.archive.org/web/20221021145252/https://www.nationalworld.com/sport/other-sport/why-do-they-spray-water-on-olympic-diving-pools-reason-pool-is-watered-between-dives-at-tokyo-2020-olympics-3330197
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/olympics-2021-covid-tiktok-tokyo-b1888127.html
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/olympic-village-covid-19-infection-bubble-already-broken-health-expert-2021-07-20/
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/08/3b432b891b57-tokyo-olympics-see-total-of-430-covid-19-cases-since-start-of-july.html
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/07/22/olympic-village-athletes-tokyo-olympics/7989739002/