Tokyo almost ready to host Olympics despite stumbling steps

TOKYO - "The last big thing within the framework of the postponed Olympic Games has finally been completed. Now the preparations for the Games are ready," Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo organizing committee for the Olympic Games, said on Tuesday, the day after the spectator policy was announced, with the Games one month away.

The Tokyo Olympic Games was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March last year. Over the past year, there have been many setbacks.

Tokyo entered a state of emergency several times due to the aggravation of the pandemic. Former Olympic organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori stepped down amid discriminative remarks against women. The world's attention was, for a while, not focused on how the Tokyo Olympics will be held, but whether it would be held at all.

Earlier this month, Hashimoto was unable to answer whether the Tokyo Olympic Games would definitely be held. She saved the answer "yes" for the one-month countdown.

The past year and three months have been difficult. This is the first time in history that the Olympic Games has been postponed, a great test for the host city and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

In general, the Tokyo organizing committee took five staggering steps to get the Games back on track.

The first step was to re-confirm the venues and schedule. Because of the postponement of the Games, contracts for the original venues and the Olympic Village had to be extended, which involved negotiations from all parties. In July 2020, all the venues and schedules for the Games were finally finalized, and the Games took a substantial step forward after more than three months of delays.

Second, facing the double pressure of curbing the pandemic and financial pressures, the Tokyo organizing committee proposed simplifying the Games to the IOC. The two sides reached an agreement of as many as 200 simplified solutions, which not only provide a template for Tokyo amid the pandemic, but also will provide a "Tokyo model" to the world after the pandemic.

The third step, and also the most challenging one, was to devise anti-pandemic measures. Since September 2020, the Tokyo organizing committee, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Japanese government have formed a pandemic prevention committee. After six coordination meetings, the committee released a draft of measures in December last year, which basically defined the pandemic prevention framework for all participants of the Olympic Games and laid the foundation for the introduction of the anti-COVID-19 Olympic manual.

The fourth step was to redefine the torch relay. The flame, which has been preserved for a year, finally set off from Fukushima Prefecture on March 25, starting a 121-day journey across the 47 prefectures. After a nearly three-month journey, the torch arrived on June 23 in Shizuoka, the site of the Olympic track cycling events. Due to the pandemic, the torch relay encountered many ups and downs. In many cities, it was even held behind closed doors, but it was also welcomed by the people of the whole country, which played a key role in the Olympic committee's final decision to let spectators in.

The fifth step was to determine the size of the audience. As early as the end of March, the Japanese government made the decision to ban overseas audience from entering the country. The number of domestic audience was supposed to be decided by the end of April. Because of the worsening of the pandemic across the country, the decision was delayed several times.

In light of the ever-changing global pandemic situation, these five steps were taken with great difficulty. Every month, a variety of opinion polls reminded the world that the Japanese people have lost faith in the Olympics, which has been made worse by the withdrawal of more than 10,000 volunteers.

Fortunately, what the hosts felt the most was support from many countries and regions around the world and the persistence from the IOC and various sporting organizations.

After the bumpiest of roads, the most unique Olympic Games in history is almost ready.