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Tokyo 2020


          It was 5.20am (Tokyo time) on a Sunday morning on September 8 when the announcement of the host city for the 2020 Olympic Games was being made. “The International Olympic Committee has the honor of announcing that the games of the 32nd Olympiad are awarded to the city of Tokyo”. The exact words from outgoing IOC President Jacques Rogge as this will be the last time he’s going to be announcing in front of the camera as the president of IOC. Live scenes from a Tokyo stadium shows a break of joy from the Japanese after the announcement was made, celebrating their winning bid. Tokyo will be the fifth city that is going to host the summer games for more than one time after staging the world’s largest games in 1964.

          First, let’s don’t talk about the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in this article. Of all three candidates, Tokyo is indeed the safest choice of all the candidate cities. Japan has a more stable economy compare to the other two, a safer Tokyo and also vast experience in hosting big sporting events. It has been reported Tokyo will spend up to $4.9 billion for the 2020 Games. Madrid has a lower cost at $2 billion, while Istanbul is the highest of all at $19 billion.

          One thing we can learn from this announcement is that IOC values country’s economic power highly. The main reason why Madrid was knocked out after the first round of voting is mainly due to the country’s poor economy condition and IOC have seen what happen to Greece after hosting the Olympics in 2004. While for Istanbul, the budget allocated for the games might be a number too large for the IOC delegates to take in.

          In my own view, the reason IOC decides to go for a safer choice this time around was due to the problems facing by Rio de Janeiro which is preparing for the 2016 games. The progress of the projects is running behind schedule, over budget in their spending together with other social problems happening in Brazil. They need somebody in 2020 who has the experience and expertise to do so and Tokyo is the obvious choice to them. Anyhow, I think IOC made the correct decision by bringing the Olympic Games of 2016 to Brazil. The first time a South American city is going to host the games, giving the continent a chance to showcase to the world what they have to offer.

          It was somehow surprising to me that Tokyo managed to pull off a large margin victory against its nearest rival-Istanbul. Tokyo won 60 votes while Istanbul managed to win only 36 votes. Asian cities that applied to be candidate cities have terrible memories over the years. Most famously, the South Korean city of Pyeongchang who lost the 2010 bid to Vancouver by a mere 3 votes and Sochi in the 2014 bid by 4 votes. The city was the hot favorite on both occasion and has led all the previous rounds of voting before losing out in the final round. But the city finally won the bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Beijing lost out to Sydney by only 2 votes for the 2000 bid despite leading in all the previous rounds of voting. This will also be the first time that there will be 2 consecutive Olympics (Both winter and summer) to be held in Asia.

          I don’t think Madrid will come back for a fourth straight bid come 2024. From the start of this whole bidding process, the Madrid bid doesn’t really make sense to me. The most important of all is that London just hosted the games in 2012 and Athens in 2004. It’s quite hard for the Olympic Games to go back to Europe again after such a short time and of course with the current economic situation of Spain.

          For Istanbul, it will mean a lot to the world if they won the bid by being the first Muslim majority country to host the games. Although it was the fifth time the city applied to host the games, I think Istanbul will be the big favorite if they decides to submit their bid for the 2024 Olympics. According to the bid plan, lots of infrastructure projects will go ahead regardless of the results of the 2020 bid. So, 2024 might be the time where Istanbul is finally well prepared to host the games. It will also means that a new region in the world is hosting the games should they won the bid in 2024.

          I guess all sports fans are eagerly anticipating the 2020 Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo in 7 years’ time. The Japanese bid team has lots of unfinished work to be done. Apart from upgrading infrastructures and building new ones, perhaps the most important of all is how to convince the world that athletics will able to compete radioactively free during the games. But of course, let’s not forget about the next Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Until then, let the Olympic spirit continues!


By,
Zhe Xu
7th September 2013





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