Winton Dong

dht0620@126.com

WITH the countdown to this summer’s sporting extravaganza, the Chinese sports authorities announced Thursday its largest-ever team to join the overseas Olympic Games.

China sent a 777-strong team to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, boasting 431 athletes and hundreds of coaches, trainers, medical workers and other supportive staff. The international sports gala will begin Friday after a one-year postponement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to media reports, Chinese athletes have qualified in 225 events at the Games, which will offer 339 gold medals over a period of 17 days of competition.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics may be one of the most controversial sports games in modern history. The pandemic has already resulted in a one-year delay. With the resurgence of the virus, many Japanese citizens and health professionals have also voiced their concern about and opposition to the event.

Earlier this year, the Tokyo organization committee declared that in order to hold the world’s largest sport event while protecting both participants and local residents from COVID-19, spectators from abroad would be barred from the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. Since the pandemic situation in Japan has recently been worsening, Tokyo authorities announced a fourth state of emergency from July 12 to Aug. 22. Such a state of emergency, which coincides with the timing of the Olympics event, means that nearly all sporting venues will bar spectators as a precautionary health measure.

From its beginning, the Olympics Games has served as an important platform for people from different countries to compete and communicate. A totally closed-door international event is really regrettable but understandable.

On the one hand, it is regrettable because no audience and visitors from home and abroad means no ticket sales, no tourism revenue, no commercial and entertainment activities and less sponsorship. Originally, hosting the Olympics Games could be a profitable business, but Japan may lose money for hosting the event. Moreover, lockdowns, quarantine measures and social distancing mean that athletes and coaches will have no access to their usual training facilities and regimens for several weeks before the Games, which will negatively influence their performance.

On the other hand, the closed-door event is understandable and even laudable. Since Tokyo bid successfully in 2013 for hosting the Games, Japan has been preparing for the big event. In spite of the pandemic and strong opposition voices from Japanese citizens and many public health experts, the country is insisting on holding the event. The preparations have already cost Japan more than US$15.4 billion, and cancellation would cost the country even more. In modern history, the Summer Olympics has never been called off due to a disease or pandemic. However, since the first Summer Olympics was held in 1896 in Athens, Greece, the Games had been canceled several times because of war. The 1916 Berlin Games was called off due to World War I, and the 1940 Tokyo and 1944 London Games were canceled during World War II.

The daily changing pandemic situation has made this year’s Tokyo Summer Olympics even more difficult. Japanese organizers have complied a detailed playbook, stipulating a set of governing rules, including social distancing, quarantine, tracing and protocols for people working in close proximity to athletes, in order to avoid the spread of the virus.

Without spectators and commercial activities, it is virtually impossible that Japan could stimulate its economy and shore up market confidence by hosting the event. Nevertheless, the sport gala could help boost the solidarity of the Japanese people and lift their morale and national pride, something which Japan needs at a time when it is facing a number of issues including a depressed economy, an aging population and a falling birth rate.

The Olympic spirit – higher, faster, stronger – goes beyond the national border. From this perspective, no matter what ideological differences, trade barriers or other confrontations, all countries should go all out to support the sports gala so as to make the Games a successful and unique event, especially at a crucial moment when the whole world is fighting against the pandemic.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)