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2020 Olympic Games in Japan

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tommy2215

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The 2020 (or 2021!) Olympics have begun in Japan. Team GB getting off to a solid start with the women's football team beating Chile 2-0. Its not all great though as already several competitors from different countries are having to self isolating after testing positive for COVID-19, despite the many measures to make the games COVID secure.

The opening ceremony won't take place until Friday though.
 
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Alan Glaum

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Do you have a source for positive tests?
6 athletes were self-isolating as contacts but I understand they have now all been released after negative tests.
 

nlogax

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The 2020 (or 2021!) Olympics have begun in Japan. Team GB getting off to a solid start with the women's football team beating Chile 2-0. Its not all great though as already 6 British athletes are having to self isolating after testing positive for COVID-19.

I'm actually amazed it's managed to start. For the longest time up until the last minute this whole endeavour has looked extremely doubtful.
 

tommy2215

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Do you have a source for positive tests?
6 athletes were self-isolating as contacts but I understand they have now all been released after negative tests.

Whoops! I think I mixed up my news. You are right that 6 British athletes tested negative. Its American and South African athletes who tested positive. Although according to BBC news those 6 are still training away from the rest of the team as a precaution anyway.

I'm actually amazed it's managed to start. For the longest time up until the last minute this whole endeavour has looked extremely doubtful.

Yes me too. I thought with rising cases and massive opposition to the games from the Japanese public would force the postponement or cancellation of the games. The cost of these games is now in the tens of billions as well.
 

dosxuk

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The opening ceremony won't take place until Friday though.
This is normal - the football always gets going a few days before the games proper, and there's often a few other sports along too - things like archery spring to mind. Same with curling in the winter edition.
 

Alan Glaum

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And now it seems Amber Hill GB's leading skeet shooter is out with a positive test.
I'm sure other potential medallists from all countries will follow.
 

tommy2215

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And now it seems Amber Hill GB's leading skeet shooter is out with a positive test.
I'm sure other potential medallists from all countries will follow.
Very sad news, especially since she was in with a very good chance of a medal, but inevitable that it would happen to some top athletes I guess.
 

brad465

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This doesn't look good the day before the opening ceremony:


The show director of the Olympics opening ceremony has been dismissed, one day before the event is due to be held.
Footage of Kentaro Kobayashi from the 1990s recently emerged in which he appears to be making jokes about the Holocaust.
Japan's Olympic chief Seiko Hashimoto said the video ridiculed "painful facts of history".
The dismissal is the latest in a string of scandals to hit the Games.
Tokyo 2020 - postponed last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic that has constantly threatened to derail the event - has seen three men forced to step down since the start of 2021.
  • Earlier this week, a composer quit the team creating the ceremony after it emerged he had bullied classmates with disabilities at school
  • In March, Olympics' creative chief Hiroshi Sasaki quit after suggesting that plus-size comedian Naomi Watanabe could appear as an "Olympig". He later apologised
  • And in February, Yoshiro Mori was forced to step down as the head of the organising committee after he made remarks about women that were criticised as "inappropriate". Mr Mori was quoted as saying women talked too much and that meetings with many female board directors would "take a lot of time"
This latest scandal has seen former comedian Mr Kobayashi strongly criticised for a sketch he performed 23 years ago, in which he and another comedian pretend to be children's entertainers.
In the sketch Mr Kobayashi turns to his colleague, referring to some paper dolls, saying they are "the ones from that time you said 'let's play the Holocaust'", according to AFP news agency.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga described the comments as "outrageous and unacceptable", while Rabbi Abraham Cooper, of the US-based Holocaust research body Simon Wiesenthal Center, said: "Any person, no matter how creative, does not have the right to mock the victims of the Nazi genocide."
Mr Kobayashi also issued a statement responding to his dismissal.
"Entertainment should not make people feel uncomfortable. I understand that my stupid choice of words at that time was wrong, and I regret it," it said.
Friday's ceremony, which Mr Suga said should proceed as planned, will officially kick off two weeks of competition.
However, after the removal of Mr Kobayashi, organisers are now reassessing how to hold Friday's event - which will only be watched by about 950 people in the stadium, in order to minimise risks.
"With the opening ceremony being so imminent, we apologise for causing concern to those involved in the Olympics, to the citizens of Tokyo and the Japanese public," Ms Hashimoto said in a statement.
The scandals have done little to stop massive unease about the Games, which were postponed from last year due to the pandemic. The head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Committee admitted this week that he has not ruled out cancellation, even at this late stage.
 

AlterEgo

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Saw the women's football; 10-3 to the Netherlands over Zambia. The quality was dreadful and this should not be an Olympic event.
 

GrimsbyPacer

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Did anyone else read in the paper about the volleyball team being criticised for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms?
One thing I dislike in the Olympics is when fashion, political, and personal issues are more of a news story than the great accomplishments of those there.

All these athletes would of worked hard to get here, they are likely worried a Covid Test could waste years of their life's work, must be stressful, I wish them all from every country the best of luck that they get a fair chance to compete in the games.

I am without TV viewing equipment as I dislike the BBC and don't want to pay them a penny, so won't be watching this time, but I'll be keeping up with the news, the Olympics is a much needed distraction.
 

Fragezeichnen

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That was handball(not an Olympic Sport in it's beach version), not volleyball. Since a few years ago Beach Volleyball players in international tournaments can wear anything up to a full body suit if they wish.
 
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Geezertronic

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Are the Olympics on any free-to-air channels? I've only seen it advertised on Discovery Plus which is a paid add-on channel
 

Darandio

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Are the Olympics on any free-to-air channels? I've only seen it advertised on Discovery Plus which is a paid add-on channel

Olympics covered across the BBC
Paralympics on Channel 4

Discovery Plus is for Eurosport
 

dosxuk

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Eurosport (now part of Discovery) did a behind-closed-doors deal with the IOC for the full European broadcast rights to the 2018-2024 which saw the EBU (European Broadcasting Union, better known by the public for Eurovision, and who used to negotiate on behalf of all the European broadcasters) frozen out. The BBC already had their own deal for 2018/2020, so did a rights swap with Eurosport to get some access to the 2022/2024 in exchange for giving up some access to the 2018/2020 games. The big complication for Eurosport was that the games are protected in much of Europe as a "must-be-available-free-to-air" event, including the UK, so they were forced to do some negotiation.

The end result is that full coverage is available on Eurosport / Discovery+, while the BBC is limited to one live channel and one red-button channel. They also have access to the whole content for highlights. One side effect is that the BBC News Channel will be broadcasting BBC World News while BBC Breakfast is on for the duration of the games, as they are not allowed to show any live Olympics coverage on the News Channel.
 

Ediswan

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Eurosport (now part of Discovery) did a behind-closed-doors deal with the IOC for the full European broadcast rights to the 2018-2024 which saw the EBU (European Broadcasting Union, better known by the public for Eurovision, and who used to negotiate on behalf of all the European broadcasters) frozen out. The BBC already had their own deal for 2018/2020, so did a rights swap with Eurosport to get some access to the 2022/2024 in exchange for giving up some access to the 2018/2020 games. The big complication for Eurosport was that the games are protected in much of Europe as a "must-be-available-free-to-air" event, including the UK, so they were forced to do some negotiation.

The end result is that full coverage is available on Eurosport / Discovery+, while the BBC is limited to one live channel and one red-button channel. They also have access to the whole content for highlights. One side effect is that the BBC News Channel will be broadcasting BBC World News while BBC Breakfast is on for the duration of the games, as they are not allowed to show any live Olympics coverage on the News Channel.
That explains why Freesat does not have a collection of temporary Olympic HD channels this time.
 

Techniquest

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Just to seek clarification on that point then, and I think they missed a trick in the adverts, which if they'd mentioned 100% of all coverage would only be on Discovery+ and only limited coverage on BBC then I might have signed up for the former, for a full trial at least. I've registered but that's it on there.

Anyway, for clarification:

Will iPlayer have the action available to stream or not?

That was the belief I was led to recently, and I'd rather watch it on BBC either live or on iPlayer than giving some other company my money. Given the Olympics is all I want to watch on Discovery+, after a look at it revealed nothing else of interest, there's not much point in my signing up for the trial.

There's also the fact that I pay my licence fee for not much in return, as I don't watch much TV. Indeed, my TV has been off and unplugged for 7 days! o_O

In the meantime, it is nearly time for the opening ceremony and I'll be watching. As far as I'm concerned, you can keep the football, rugby and other such sports. The Olympics is where it's at for sports to me, the best athletes in the world competing for their hard-earnt medals is well worth following.

Also, is it just me or is there no real Team GB support around the place? When it came to the football, everywhere had flags up, everyone was talking about it and so on. My workplace made tons of effort for the football, but nothing for the Olympics...:rolleyes:
 

dosxuk

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Will iPlayer have the action available to stream or not?
iPlayer will only have the content which was broadcast on the main live channel or the red button channel.

The "usual" access to all the sports is only available to Eurosport subscribers.
 

Ediswan

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This will be interesting. The Olympic Flame in the cauldron at the stadium is to use hydrogen, which is well know for burning with a (nearly) invisible flame.
 

eMeS

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This will be interesting. The Olympic Flame in the cauldron at the stadium is to use hydrogen, which is well know for burning with a (nearly) invisible flame.

Surely, if it's slightly adulterated with some sodium chloride (common salt) it will give a typical amber coloured flame?
 

Techniquest

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iPlayer will only have the content which was broadcast on the main live channel or the red button channel.

The "usual" access to all the sports is only available to Eurosport subscribers.

Thanks. That's good to know, as the men's road race is on tomorrow when I'm at work, so I'll be able to watch it when I get back on iPlayer.

Watched the opening ceremony on BBC One, very good in general. Due to the silly o'clock time I got up this morning (before 2am) I did nod off a couple of times very briefly, but it didn't appear to be that I missed anything.

I didn't really enjoy the commentary though, they got on my nerves a bit in places. I think that was partly down to the boring tone of voice that guy has, ugh!
 

J-2739

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I enjoyed what I saw of the opening ceremony on BBC One. What stood out to me was the kinematic representations of the 50 events. The reference to the pandemic by the commentators every 5 minutes was slightly irritating, but didn't ruin things for me in the end.

Let the games begin!
 

GrimsbyPacer

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"And may the odds ever be in [Britain's] favour"?

(Actually, should that be "favor"? I can't remember whether the American or English spelling should be used in this (mis)quote!)
Either spelling is fine. As long as the word is understood it doesn't matter how it's spelt/spelled.
 

ABB125

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Either spelling is fine. As long as the word is understood it doesn't matter how it's spelt/spelled.
I know, it's just that Suzanne Collins (author of the quote) is American, so I would've thought I should use the American spelling. It's been at least 5 years since I read The Hunger Games, so I really can't remember!
 

GrimsbyPacer

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I know, it's just that Suzanne Collins (author of the quote) is American, so I would've thought I should use the American spelling. It's been at least 5 years since I read The Hunger Games, so I really can't remember!
When we quote foreign language works, say Sun Tzu's "There are not more than five colours" it seems to change into either version of English required. So I guess the quoter has the discretion to alter the spelling. One thing I've seen a lot is quotes written such as "Chimley (sic)" to imply the person who said it was stupid, forgetting alternative spellings are fine in some dialects, I hate the "(sic)" thing, I'm not too bothered about American or English spellings, especially as favor was the spelling over here in the past.

In unrelated stuff, I heard the football team has an English, Scottish, and Welsh co-captain, can't see it working.
 

ABB125

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When we quote foreign language works, say Sun Tzu's "There are not more than five colours" it seems to change into either version of English required. So I guess the quoter has the discretion to alter the spelling. One thing I've seen a lot is quotes written such as "Chimley (sic)" to imply the person who said it was stupid, forgetting alternative spellings are fine in some dialects, I hate the "(sic)" thing, I'm not too bothered about American or English spellings, especially as favor was the spelling over here in the past.

In unrelated stuff, I heard the football team has an English, Scottish, and Welsh co-captain, can't see it working.
Personally I don't mind the spelling, but I just like to be accurate with my quotes (if I can remember them!).

Anyway, back to the games!
 

tommy2215

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Huge congrats to Chelsie Giles in Judo for becoming the first British competitor to win a medal at these games!!! May that be the first of dozens
 
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