Mark Adams, a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), considered the question – one at the heart of whether the Tokyo Games should have been …
Mark Adams, a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), considered the question – one at the heart of whether the Tokyo Games should have been staged. Before the Olympics, polls showed up to 80 percent of people in Japan opposed the Games being held. Largely, those people feared that tens of thousands of people coming to the Olympics from outside the country would cause a surge in COVID-19 cases and, as a result, increase the number of deaths. As of last week, COVID-19 cases in Tokyo had doubled, and reached a daily record of 3,865 on Thursday, according to the Associated Press, with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga saying, “Infections are expanding in the Tokyo and western metropolitan areas at an enormous speed that we have never experienced before.» Seven days into the Olympics, with government officials denying a link between the Games and spike in COVID-19 cases, Adams faced this question: What sense do you have about how the Olympics are being received in Japan now? “I saw yesterday, I’m sure you all did too, that positive mentions on Twitter in Japan now overcome negative ones,” he said Friday. “I don’t think that’s a very scientific way of judging things but clearly, I think (Japan) winning 15 gold medals… I think that will have a big effect.» Later that day, Japan’s gold medal haul jumped to 17 and the country had won 28 medals in all. Five years ago, Japan took home 12 golds for the entire Rio Games. “The Olympic Games in normal times, there’s always a pick-up as the Games progress and particularly as the host nation in this case starts to do well,» Adams said. «I think that has been magnified.” Another way to gauge how Japan is responding to the Olympics is to walk through the venues and ask people – journalists, volunteers and other locals.
