The Olympic Games are becoming emptier, more expensive – more dangerous

Football also plays a special role at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. It has been known since Thursday that no spectators are allowed in the competitions in and around the Japanese capital. However, this only applies to Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures, where the corona emergency has been declared again. In Rifu, however, where the German soccer men are playing their third group game, fans should be able to attend in the local Miyagi Stadium.

It would be a strange picture that would be transported from there into the world. Because in the large and over one billion euro expensive Tokyo Olympic Stadium with its 68,000 seats, the seats remain empty. The Summer Games are scheduled to open here on July 23, one year after the original date. Athletes from around 200 nations will move into the stadium, which is usually a festive prelude, an experience that is unforgettable for many athletes.

But the waving in the wide circle will not be reciprocated on this evening in Tokyo, the colorful opening ceremony will not evoke “ahs” and “ohs” in the audience. Instead, there will be largely sadness in the stadium and the arenas around it. It is a miracle that the Olympics are still taking place under these circumstances. On the other hand, the Olympic Games have long been more than just a sporting event. It’s about money, a lot of money. For Japan and the IOC.

In the USA alone, the television broadcaster NBC has the transmission rights costing around one billion euros. A little more than 400 million euros come from Discovery from Europe, which Olympia broadcasts in this country via the Eurosport channel. In addition, there are billions in sponsorship money, in Japan alone 60 large companies wanted to pay three billion euros. Many of these companies have already started to cancel their planned activities and events related to the Games in the past few weeks. In this way, losses can at best be limited, but no longer avoided.

This also applies to the organizers. The costs for the Olympics are now estimated at 13 billion euros, which is another 22 percent more than it would have been if it had been held last year. Now there is also no income from sports fans from all over the world. Japan in the person of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headed by President Thomas Bach are trying to save what can hardly be saved.

“Both of them will go through with these games. And I think one can add, at any price, ”said the Bundestag sports committee chairman of the“ Münchner Merkur tz media group ”. The SPD politician added that the “current provisions to completely forego viewers” ​​are a sensible approach, at least from a pandemic point of view.

Now it is easy to point a finger at the Japanese government or the IOC and accuse them of greed for money. Despite all the justified criticism of a sports spectacle in pandemic times, it is the athletes in particular who are repeatedly forgotten. There are not just the multi-million dollar professional athletes, as they are currently celebrated in almost full stadiums at the European Football Championship.

The athletes are happy that the Olympics are taking place at all

There are also the athletes who have been preparing for the Olympics over the years. Who do everything to be there once at the games and finally to be noticed by a wider public with what they offer. These athletes earn little or no money, nor is it what drives them. “I’ve been training for five years now, I’m happy when I can compete,” said saber fencer Max Hartung, who was also the German athlete spokesman on Thursday in the “ARD Tagesthemen”.

Long jumper Malaika Mihambo, for example, regrets that no spectators can attend the competitions: “We athletes will lack this support, but we will make the best of it and cheer each other on. The sporting spirit remains unbroken. ”For artistic gymnast Elisabeth Seitz, a rejection would have been“ a huge shock ”, she explained in the“ ZDF heute-Journal ”. The fact that the games actually take place is “a huge gift for us athletes”.

This does not necessarily apply to the people in Japan and especially in Tokyo. For them, the Olympics means more stress than joy. After all, the restrictions apply to the residents because of the competitions in the city, only that they are no longer even allowed to watch the athletes. On Friday, the Olympic organizers even asked citizens not to stand by the route during cycling races on the street or during marathons. Even when the Olympic torch arrived in the host city on Friday, it was closed to the public – at least the local public.

No wonder the Japanese are now frustrated with the Olympics. And are afraid that the games with around 11,000 athletes from all over the world will turn into a superspreader event for the coronavirus. The Nuremberg pharmacologist Fritz Sörgel speaks of the Olympics as an “experiment” because athletes from so many nations would come together in Tokyo. “There has not been anything like this since the outbreak of the pandemic. With this mix I already see the risk of virus mutations, ”he told Tagesspiegel.

At the European Football Championship these dangers were largely ignored, the stadiums in Budapest or currently in London were almost completely full of people. A British study claims to have recognized a connection between the increasing number of infections in London and the games at Wembley Stadium. By excluding viewers, this risk for Tokyo has been at least somewhat reduced.

However, the fact that there are unequal standards for sporting events offends some Olympic athletes. Javelin thrower Johannes Vetter, for example, said on Sport1: “With all-father football, it shows again that other laws apply.” Even at the Olympics. (with dpa)