This thread will serve as both a collation thread for all the threads relating to the Olympics and a general discussion thread leading up to the Games (if they do indeed happen this year). Discuss everything Olympics-related in here!

Build-up Threads
Host City Selection
Olympic Moments 2020 Edition

Quizzes / Games
Olympic Country Manager

Discussion Threads
If you could swap one Olympic sport for another
Tokyo 2020 Coverage

The Olympics
Aquatics
Athletics
Ball Sports (Baseball, Basketball, Golf, Handball, Rugby Sevens, Softball, Volleyball)
Combat Sports (Boxing, Judo, Karate, Taekwondo, Wrestling)
Cycling
Equestrian
Football
Gymnastics
Racket Sports (Badminton, Table Tennis, Tennis)
Triathlon
Water Sports (Canoeing, Rowing, Sailing, Surfing)
Miscellaneous (Archery, Fencing, Field Hockey, Modern Pentathlon, Shooting, Skateboarding, Sport Climbing, Weightlifting)

Closing Thread

Hope you don’t mind me starting this thread Mack!

 

Thought it would be good to get it going as today we got the sad (but expected) news that foreign spectators won’t be able to travel to Tokyo to watch the games as it would be "highly unlikely" that entry to the country could be guaranteed. Obviously this is the responsible decision but a big financial blow to the Games and a shame that athletes’ families won’t be able to celebrate/commiserate with them.

That's absolutely fine, Pete thanks :). That's a real blow that foreign spectators won't be allowed to travel to Tokyo but it was expected.

Sports:

 

Archery

Athletics

Badminton

Baseball

Basketball

3-on-3 basketball

Beach Volleyball

BMX Freestyle

BMX racing

Boxing

Canoeing/Kayak (sprint)

Canoeing/Kayak (slalom)

Diving

Equestrian

Fencing

Football

Golf

Gymnastics (artistic, rhymic, trampoline)

Handball

Hockey

Judo

Karate

Modern pentathlon

Mountain biking

Road Cycling

Rowing

Rugby Sevens

Sailing

Shooting

Skateboarding

Softball

Sport Climbing

Surfing

Swimming

Synchroinzed Swimming

Table tennis

Taekwondo

Tennis

Track Cycling

Triathlon

Volleyball

Water Polo

Weightlifting

 

New to the 2020 Olympics will be karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding. Also baseball and softball make a return for the first time since Beijing 2008.

If this goes ahead, I know I will be watching the swimming/diving events in particular. Loved swimming back when I was young and still swim at the gym in normal times. Also look out for the athletics and the gymnastics.

I'm of course looking forward to the cycling Road Race - it'll be some challenge for the riders who will have finished the Tour de France less than a week earlier though :o Always enjoy the variety of sports that I'd never watch outside of Olympic year, would be good to catch some of the speed-climbing after seeing it for the first time at the Youth Olympics.

I've been looking forward to a spectacular opening ceremony from them since Rio, so it's a real shame it won't be the same!

I've been looking forward to a spectacular opening ceremony from them since Rio, so it's a real shame it won't be the same!

never even thought about this. with so many restrictions in place it's never gonna be the same as past recent efforts no matter how hard they try

I had been looking forward especially to the technical sides of the display given we're in Japan which shouldn't be affected so much, but indeed, there'll be parts of your average Olympic opening ceremony that will be impossible to pull off.

Torch relay has begun in Fukushima

 

 

Starting with a member of the team (Azusa Iwashimizu) who won the Women's World Cup in 2011, and of course it's also 10 years on from the terrible disaster in that part of Japan. Looks lowkey obviously but still a decent amount of people able to be out in an open-air area.

Good to see the torch relay going ahead, even if it lacks the crowds - watching that video it feels almost eerily quiet compared to the others I've seen! At least there is some level of audience around, even if they are mostly official.

Apparently the BBC will be covering the Olympics from home, it would be the first time since Seoul 1988 that coverage would be hosted from the UK.

 

 

100 days to go until the Olympics begin! (provided they go ahead of course). To celebrate I've updated the banner in the OP :D

@1382403552178487297

Spectators have been banned from the Olympics as Japan declares a state of emergency :( Let's hope we can still have the Games going ahead as planned!

Opening Ceremony on now, anyone else able to watch?

 

Even though it’s under awkward circumstances, I have always been looking forward to what they do with this.

I’m watching this first hour on my lunch break, god bless still working from home! The national anthem sounded beautiful.

loving it so far!

 

Now of course, they are entering according to Japanese alphabetical order *.*

 

Which starts with Aisurando (Iceland), and ends with Rebanon (Lebanon), between the ceremonial firsts and lasts.

Caught a few hours of the Opening Ceremony, mainly consisting of the countries parading in! Took me a while to work out they were entering in Japanese alphabetical order - initially I wondered what on earth this weird order was :lol:

Very conscious choice it seems to not make the opening ceremony too much of a London 2012-like national show, in some ways that's disappointing as I wanted some of that after Abe in a Mario suit at the end of 2016, but with the pandemic their plans might have been hit, equally they may have decided a more internationalist approach was more appropriate in the circumstances.

 

Also, to stereotype a second, the Japanese national character is not to show off and to absolutely do things 'by the book', traditional and proper, so I guess future hosts will appreciate them tuning it down a little.

 

One thing that really worked well (and indicative of the more subdued nature of the ceremony). was the soundbed of music tracks, all from the soundtracks of internationally successful Japanese video games, from NIeR to Final Fantasy, to Monster Hunter to Kingdom Hearts. Japan does have a very successful international entertainment culture beloved around the world but I'd definitely say that the medium in which they've made the most popular inroads is video games, above even anime, so that fits. On par with "Galvanize" et al from London 2012 there.