Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, March. I'm Oscar Ramiraz from the Daily Dive
Speaker 1: podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
Speaker 1: Tokyo Olympics have officially been postponed until sometime next year.
Speaker 1: Now comes the big problems handling the logistics of moving everything,
Speaker 1: all the money that has been poured into the game
Speaker 1: so far, and what happens to the athletes who still
Speaker 1: need to stay in tip top shape for the games.
Speaker 1: David mac, editor at BuzzFeed News, joins us for how
Speaker 1: coronavirus has impacted the biggest sporting events so far. Thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us, David, So we finally got some news
Speaker 1: that we were expecting a little bit more in recent days.
Speaker 1: The Tokyo Olympics have been postponed for about a year.
Speaker 1: We don't know exactly when they'll come back just yet,
Speaker 1: but they were set to begin on July, and amid
Speaker 1: this whole coronavirus pandemic, it just seemed all but certain
Speaker 1: that we had to shut it down, although there was
Speaker 1: a lot of reluctance by the Internationallympics committee. David tell
Speaker 1: us about this new announcement. You're exactly right that it
Speaker 1: did seem somewhat inevitable. So it's sort of major international
Speaker 1: events one after the other, and big sporting tournaments get
Speaker 1: shot down over these last month or so, and the Olympics,
Speaker 1: as you said, were looming in July, and it just
Speaker 1: did seem like there was no way that this could
Speaker 1: possibly go ahead. Yesterday you had the teams from Canada
Speaker 1: and Australia be the first to announce that they weren't
Speaker 1: going to send their athletes to Tokyo because they were
Speaker 1: worried about the threat posed by the coronavirus. But up
Speaker 1: until now, the IOC and the Japanese Olympic Ministry had
Speaker 1: been sort of adamant that this was going to go ahead.
Speaker 1: They weren't even at least publicly entertaining the idea of
Speaker 1: changing the games. Just at the beginning of the month,
Speaker 1: I think the Japanese Olympics Minister said it was inconceivable
Speaker 1: the idea that the Games being canceled or postponed. But
Speaker 1: of course we had Shinzo Abe have a conversation that
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister of Japan rather have a conversation with
Speaker 1: the head of the IOC Thomas Park today, and he
Speaker 1: emerged to announce it. As you said, the games are
Speaker 1: being put off for about a year. Seems like, as
Speaker 1: you said, no proper date just yet, but the io
Speaker 1: C and the Japanese have agreed that they will be
Speaker 1: held by next summer at the latest, and of course
Speaker 1: that is going to have major repercussions for the international
Speaker 1: sporting calendar. Now, this is the first time that this
Speaker 1: has really happened where it's been postponed by anything other
Speaker 1: than war. Basically, World War One and World War two
Speaker 1: impacted some of the games at that time, and these
Speaker 1: games will still be called Tokyo despite happening. And there's
Speaker 1: probably just a simplicity element there of all the branding
Speaker 1: that's already been prints and organized for not just the
Speaker 1: Japanese but media companies around the world and things like that.
Speaker 1: So I think, probably to say the Japanese a bit
Speaker 1: of money, I've already spent at least about twenty six
Speaker 1: billion dollars on these games, they're going to let them
Speaker 1: still call the games. And as you said, this is
Speaker 1: the first time that the timing of the games has
Speaker 1: been impacted by anything other than a war. I think,
Speaker 1: as you said, the World War is affected that they
Speaker 1: can out of the Games during the wars. Of course,
Speaker 1: there were the famous boycott during the Olympics during the
Speaker 1: Cold War, but we've never had anything a public health
Speaker 1: crisis postponent Olympic Games. Before let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the money you mentioned twenty six billion so far
Speaker 1: that Japan has probably put into this. But it's not
Speaker 1: just Japan themselves. I know NBC always hosts the Olympics
Speaker 1: here back home and the broadcasts all that stuff. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of money tied up there. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of money tied up in advertisements, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: money tied up in endorsements for athletes themselves. That this
Speaker 1: stuff will have to be put on hold for here probably.
Speaker 1: I think the Japanese were expecting two billion dollars in
Speaker 1: tourism revenue to come through on this, So putting this
Speaker 1: on hold at this crazy time right now is just
Speaker 1: a huge impact, yes, exactly. And of course Japan has
Speaker 1: been hit by corona virus cases like everyone else in
Speaker 1: the world, so they've got a lot of money to
Speaker 1: spend on that on their health system at the moment
Speaker 1: as well. But I think, as you said, it's kind
Speaker 1: of important when you watch the Olympics and you get
Speaker 1: caught up in the spectacle and the sport. Of course,
Speaker 1: it is a huge money making machine for the media
Speaker 1: markets around the world and the sporting As you said,
Speaker 1: think of all the advertisers that are paying to have
Speaker 1: their brands associated with the Olympics and to use the
Speaker 1: Olympic rings on things like that. We're going to be
Speaker 1: seeing a major impact in terms of just sort of
Speaker 1: chaos on the international media market as they scrambled to
Speaker 1: sort of reschedule things for currently we don't know when
Speaker 1: at some point in the next year. And in terms
Speaker 1: of advertising and sponsorship, as you said, NBC had paid
Speaker 1: I think the biggest amount for any broadcast in the world,
Speaker 1: and there was discussion before today that potentially the games
Speaker 1: could be pushed back maybe a few months, maybe held
Speaker 1: in another country and you know, another time. But of course,
Speaker 1: you know NBC obviously would impact the coverage of US
Speaker 1: football if we said that was going to happen in
Speaker 1: the six months, that would conflict with their TV calendar
Speaker 1: as well. So everything was kind of the interbeats get
Speaker 1: planned sort of years and years out and this is
Speaker 1: a just a couple of months out now, just sort
Speaker 1: of have to scramble to change everything is going to
Speaker 1: be a lot of work, that's for sure. I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about the athletes. The Tokyo
Speaker 1: Games were anticipated to be one of the largest yet
Speaker 1: more than eleven thousand athletes from two hundred and six countries,
Speaker 1: thirty three sports, three hundred and thirty nine medal events.
Speaker 1: It's a lot. But for the athletes themselves, you know,
Speaker 1: they're training so that they're at their peak. Once this
Speaker 1: is happening, this all kind of throws that for loop.
Speaker 1: Now they have to keep this peak training period. Not
Speaker 1: that they're not training all the time, but this peak
Speaker 1: training period that they need to be at their best
Speaker 1: for the games has to be extended a here. Who
Speaker 1: knows how people's bodies hold up for another year. Rescheduling
Speaker 1: of Olympic trials, things like wrestling and swimming, those had
Speaker 1: to be postponed already, running of the marathon that's already
Speaker 1: been done. Do they redo those again? There's so much
Speaker 1: that has to go into just that part of it.
Speaker 1: With the athletes, that's exactly right. I mean, I'm having
Speaker 1: a hard enough time working out in my apartment in
Speaker 1: coronavirus lockdown I think of these guys who have to
Speaker 1: make sure that staying in peak physical performance now or
Speaker 1: at least get back to it in time for the
Speaker 1: next Games. It's going to be a lot of work there.
Speaker 1: But I think, as you said, the interesting thing as
Speaker 1: well as just how much sort of chaos this is
Speaker 1: going to cause on the international sporting calendar, as all
Speaker 1: the federations and associations of athletics and swimming, gymnastics and
Speaker 1: pinning else in between have to try to either work
Speaker 1: out what's going to happen, not just with the qualifying
Speaker 1: events for the Games, but the things that were scheduled
Speaker 1: for next year as well, and the tournaments and the
Speaker 1: soccer tournaments and the basketball tournaments that were scheduled for
Speaker 1: next year, and what was supposed to be a non
Speaker 1: Games year. It's all going to be up in the
Speaker 1: air and have to get replanned. David Mac, editor at
Speaker 1: BuzzFeed News, thank you very much for joining us my pleasure.
Speaker 1: I'm Oscar Ramires and this has been your daily coronavirus update.
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