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EPISODE: Episode 27
Join us on our on-going exploration of the Olympics to be held in Tokyo 2021, featuring Christian from the Friday Night Panel, and the route to the ring. Watch TalkinFight weekdays at 12, 4, 7, and 8:30pm EST on YouTube or LIVE at talkinfight.com/live @Olympic @IOC Media @boxingcanada #boxingcanada @Team Canada / Équipe Canada
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Transcribed:
Hello boxing fans around the world welcome to another episode of talking fight and specifically the olympics, featuring christian from the friday night panel, and what do we have lined up today? Christian, i don’t know uh well, graham, it is official uh this today’s episode’s a little bit more about the olympics in general than boxing specifically, but it is official as of to well.
I guess sometime in the middle of the night for us, but as a first thing this morning in japan, the official olympic season kicked off the torch relay for the postponed 2020 tokyo.
Olympic games began its 121 day journey across japan this morning and is headed towards the opening ceremonies in tokyo on the 23rd of july, so the relay began in northeastern fukushima prefecture.
Now this is the area that was devastated in 2011 by an earthquake tsunami as well as the meltdown of three nuclear reactors, and the ending result was about 18 000 people losing their lives that year in those combined tragedies uh.
The first runner with the torch was azusa iwashima looks i’m going to get this one wrong, horribly ewashimizu.
It washes yeah, i’m all over the map.
One more time awash there we go.
Apologies she’s a player from the japan’s uh from japan’s football or soccer.
Depending on your flavor uh world cup, winning team from 2011.
, so the opening ceremony for the start of the relay was held at j village, which is the soccer training site.
The ceremony was closed to the public because of fears over spreading covet 19 but was shown on national television.
So fans were told to social distance along the roadsides as the torch passes, and they were also told to refrain from loud.
Cheering organizers have said that they will either stop or re-route the relay at any point, if crowding becomes a problem during the four month long parade, so they do have some contingencies that they’re already taking into account here.
So this really is going to be a big test for the upcoming olympics, with fear among the public that the event could spread the virus to rural and more isolated parts of the country.
Vaccinations have not begun uh to be rolled out yet in japan, uh at least not to the general public and so far just the shade under 9000 deaths have been attributed to covet 19 in that country.
So far, we’re going to see about 10 000 runners are expected to take part in the relay and it’s going to be touching japan’s 47 different prefectures and the relay, of course, is going to be a preload, a prelude to the difficulties the olympics, as well as The paralympics are going to present with 15 400 athletes entering japan along with thousands of other.
You know: officials, judges, vips, media broadcasters, uh organizers, announced a few days ago, as we already discussed that fans from abroad are gon na be banned from attending this particular olympics.
As well as paralympics, uh as well as most volunteers, have also been ruled out, we did cover that there’s a bit 500 that they’re still considering right now, who have special uh, either experience or skill sets that make them integral to the running of the games.
Local organizers and the international olympic committee hope that the relay will turn public opinion in japan in favor of the olympics.
Sentiments expressed in polls in japan so far have been overwhelmingly negative with about 80 suggesting either another delay of the games or just an out and out cancellation.
The relay uh pardon me the relay and the olympic and the olympics themselves bolster fear.
The event could spread.
The virus there’s also opposition to the soaring cost of these games that we’ve covered as well in past now, officially put at 15.
4 billion u.
s.
Although several, although through several private audits, it has been suggested that it’s as much as twice that amount and a university of oxford study, says that these are the most expensive games in uh olympic history.
From the moment that japan kind of pitched the idea to host these 2020 olympic games, its organizers, have framed it as a symbol of recovery, uh from a decades-long economic slump from the devastating earthquake tsunami nuclear disaster uh, as well as the postponement of over the last Year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, now as the organizers press ahead with plans to hold the tokyo olympics this summer, the event itself threatens to become a trial from which japan may take a few years to recover from as well so far, a series of health, economic And political challenges have all besieged these games, even as the organizers decided last week to bar international spectators, epidemiologists warn that the olympics could still become a super spreader event.
Thousands of athletes and other other participants will be descending on tokyo from more than 200 countries.
At a time where most of the japanese public will still remain unvaccinated, the tokyo organizing committee has been swamped by leadership chaos with both president and the creative director having uh to resign over the past month over making sexist remarks we’ve covered on this show as well.
The headaches for the tokyo summer games heard me sorry something on my throat there, the headaches for the tokyo summer games long uh predated the actual pandemic, though two years after winning the bid, the government abandoned their sleek new stadium, designed by famous architect, zaha hadid, because The cost of that stadium had ballooned to over two billion dollars after a work on a much cheaper stadium, design had got underway, a construction supervisor died by suicide after being overworked by organizers, the organizers went on and they scrapped the first logo for the games after Uh plagiarism accusations, the president of japan’s olympic committee, was indicted on corruption charges relating to the bidding process for these games out of fears for the extreme heat in tokyo in july.
The ioc has now moved the marathon to sapporo on japan’s northern ireland and that’s over 500 miles from the olympic stadium, so these games have already like from day one well before we got into the coronavirus pandemic, have already been just beset with just issues and challenges From the ver from the from the word go for the japanese um, we have a local here, uh hyungmin you who works in finance in tokyo, was quoted as saying i don’t know any reason why anyone would want to go out and watch these olympic games now.
He had previously secured coveted tickets to both swimming and the track and field finals, but now has no interest whatsoever in getting anywhere near the olympic stadium or the aquatic center.
Wishing that they could postpone the olympics either uh just cancel them out right or postpone them until 2024 and just move everybody accordingly.
Uh tokyo, organizing committee had seiko hashimoto recently cited the significant challenges facing the world and the responsibility of the olympics to quote build a legacy for future society, [ Music, ] now money national pride also might be something to consider on this one because they’re both definitely At play here, the international olympic committee, which is sustained largely by selling broadcasting rights, stands to lose perhaps even more than japan.
If this event is cancelled already, the ioc has struggled to entice bidders for future olympic games, as cities have decided to avoid the hassle, as well as the cost.
Great example of this gram would be toronto uh, where, where we’re both coming from today, uh after hosting the 2015 pan am games, the decision was taken to pull out of the bidding process for future olympic games, because i believe initially, we were looking to bid on This on 2020, as well as 2024.
.
We also mentioned earlier in the week uh when uh the ipa appointed ishtavankovax uh, that he sat on the 20 on the budapest 2024 committee before the hungarians decided to pull out of the bidding process as well.
So, in an event to give themselves a little bit more breathing room, the ioc has broken with the tradition and in 2017, simultaneously announced the host of the next two summer.
Uh games, so that’s gon na be obviously paris in 2024, which we’ve mentioned as well as los angeles in 2028, and just uh recently picked brisbane australia for it’s as its favored candidate for the 2032 event.
So they’re already thinking well well in advance on this one.
Then there’s the matter of china to consider as well.
The beijing winter olympics are now less than a year away and tokyo wants bragging.
Tokyo and the japanese general want bragging rights on this one as having hosted the first post pandemic games.
So if the olympics were to fall through in japan but then were staged successfully in china only six months later, this gives the beijing the beijing government more fuel to assert that its authoritarian system is superior.
So they definitely don’t want that.
Whatever the outcome of this game, the games this summer, it’s going to have profound ramifications on the entire olympic movement, which has relied for decades upon the idealized promise of inspiration and civic pride to support enormous expenditures and increasingly onerous demands on their host cities.
So that’s the big news out of japan today, graham there’s not a whole lot going on, specifically in the world of amateur boxing, and we will get back into profiling, some of our some local boxers, as well as some olympic hopefuls from around the world.
As we get closer into the two qualifying, events that are yet to uh take place, that’ll be coming up, but our olympic season has officially kicked off as of today to what can only be described as mixed reactions.
I know we around the world are all pretty happy that it’s going forward and we’re looking forward to seeing this, but at the same time i am pretty relieved that it’s not happening in my backyard mixed emotions, mixed emotions with with mixed messaging with uh.
You know mixed reactions, true on all counts, uh.
It must be well.
I don’t know on one hand, there’s gon na be a lot of people making a lot of money uh in various capacities over there in japan, uh and around the world.
Uh, based on these uh olympic events, not just boxing uh, as they have uh throughout the years uh but boy, oh boy, what a conundrum – and i feel i do feel sorry for not only the participants uh in the olympics, the actual athletes who don’t get to Uh perform in front of a large audience uh, but certainly around the world is going to be.
You know that billion plus televised audience that they often brag about, not to mention the online audience.
That’S going to augment that.
I’M sure this year anyway, uh great report holy boy that was uh well research well done! Thank you a lot going on today, a lot going on today.
This is our official kickoff, so we thought we’d better, take a bit of a deeper look into the first day of the games, so to speak, yeah somewhere right now.
Somebody is running with a torch in their hand in japan.
Somebody is physically running as we’re speaking right now holding that torch.
So that’s something we can all look forward to and i’m sure we can also you can go online.
You can find the footage of that torx lighting ceremony, as well as the uh, the entire japanese uh women’s team actually set off with it.
Obviously, we only had one torch bearer, but the team itself set off initially with the torch and, as is tradition, uh, with respect to the final uh torchbearer lighting, the flame in the olympic stadium.
Do you know who that would be? Have they chosen that uh? You know that probably had that that probably has been announced as just like anything else.
The amount of uh planning that’s had to go into this with a coven 19 restrictions, so they have to know who all 10 000 of these runners are going to be well.
In advance because everybody who’s going to be involved is going to have to still supply negative covert results and things of that nature, so i’m sure that they know and i’m sure we can find out, but i actually have not uh myself looked into who the uh The actual final torch bearer is going to be this year, but we will find out – and i will let you know that tomorrow, fair enough and on that note uh.
We will see you tomorrow, not only during the lunchtime episode but in the friday night panel as well.
It is friday isn’t that tomorrow, okay tomorrow, then we’ll talk a couple of times tomorrow.
Indeed, thank you very much christian, oh thanks for watching and out.
We’Ve got big t weighing in, as he does from time to time coming to us from the uk.
I believe uh with uh most of the athletes that he’s spoken with they’re, saying that uh, the delay has taken a bit of the sparkle out of these games and the excitement and a lot of that’s going to have to do.
And i have to agree with big t here.
A lot of that is going to have to do with the fact that we’re not going to be seeing fans uh as well as anyone else, who’s, not an athlete or directly uh, directly part of these games.
Because it’s not just the uh, the roar of the crowd in the actual stadium itself, although that does help, but also it’s just it’s not it’s not just your support.
It’S not just your trainers and coaches who typically come with you.
A lot of these athletes bring family and friends with them to the games as well that they’re able to take time with and enjoy what is a life-changing experience and for a lot of athletes.
A once-in-a-lifetime experience to these games so um a lot of the actual.
The olympic life around, not just the participation in the events but also life in the olympic village, getting to know athletes from around the world experiencing new foods, cultures, uh friendships and things like that.
You wouldn’t necessarily have all of that is being taken away from these athletes and really, at this point, one of the biggest reasons that we’re still holding these games aside from bragging rights and uh.
Just the financial losses attached to this is the fact that they want to keep this tradition running.
I mean we don’t normal other than cases of war.
It’S they.
We haven’t had really been in a situation where we’re looking at canceling olympiads, so they don’t want to set that precedent.
So, although this is going to be, as big t mentions, without the sparkle uh so to speak, they are very much carrying on with it.
In order to be able to say that it just it did happen and that they have this unbroken chain that they’re going to keep moving on with, in my opinion, yeah well said, i mean on the bright side, any athlete who succeeds and gets to the podium Is certainly going to benefit from a metal whether it be bronze, silver or gold, but in particular, if it’s gold financially, because there are a lot of big name sponsors out there who do seek uh the endorsement value of a gold medal winner.
So that is, you know the tangible benefit of an athlete going over to the olympics and and winning absolutely right on yeah.
I know uh tough, it’s tough uh for not only the uh, the athletes uh not having spectators but not having their friends and family uh support them as they go through that process too bad.
Well again, big t here, who is a long time follower of the show here who chimes in with us from time to time here i know he was planning, i believe, on going to tokyo for these uh particular olympics, as his son is looking to qualify and The european qualifier uh ben whittaker so and we will uh we will take some time and speak about ben a little as we get closer to the european qualifiers, we’ll we’ll definitely run a bit of an episode on him as well.
But that’s: what’s one person right there who’s out to cancel their plans to go to the games who was going to support his son yep.
Do too bad but uh, like i said before: uh, hey, big t! If you want to come on board and uh, give us some insight personally on that on this call with us, uh feel free, let us know, and if you want to hook up uh ben with one of our other hosts, you can uh talk boxing.
Let us know anyway, uh thanks very much christian appreciate it thanks very much big t for your insight from across the pond, and all the visitors who’ve come in and watched the show today.
Thank you very much and we’ll see you tomorrow have a good one.
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