Montreal City Weblog

Kate 22:23 on 2020-03-22 Permalink Reply  

• David100 05:48 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  So lame that Canada is the country to announce this.

  Like, those Japanese have been prepping for this for years, and instead of doing the multi-lateral thing, some Canadian Olympic people with their own agenda are trying to make a play here.

• walkerp 08:31 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  I thought it was kind of badass and the right thing to do. IOC is super corrupt and clearly hoping to buy time. Insane to think that it is even a conversation at this point whether they will cancel it or not.

• Kate 08:34 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  I agree with walkerp. Canada made the right move. Those Games will have to be cancelled, or postponed a year.

• Mark 09:21 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  Everything I’ve understood from this story is that the IOC and Japan are both aware that the games need to be postponed, but they are playing a game a chicken to see who pulls the plug first….in terms of saving face, but mostly because of insurance and contracts. They are out-waiting each other to see who blinks first and is left with the bulk of expenses.

• dwgs 09:26 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  I have a family member who does a lot of the logistics for the Canadian team (arranging transportation and storage of athletic gear, team clothing, specialized nutritional needs etc etc etc, all the things the team needs to function). That job alone is a massive undertaking, he has already been to Japan twice for periods of about 10 days. If the games are to go ahead as scheduled his crew (and that of every other country) would need to be in Japan by the third week of June to set up. He would also need to make another week-long trip at the end of May.

  There is no way one can reasonably expect all this to be blown over in time.

• Tim 10:34 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  @David100, this isn’t about Japan. It’s about the clowns in the IOC. Cathal Kelly hits the nail on the head in the following (hopefully not paywalled) column: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/article-canadas-decision-to-pull-out-of-the-olympics-is-to-our-collective/

• david100 12:09 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  That’s just rah-rahism for Canada.

  In reality, the Japanese should have been left to announce it in their own time, given the huge investment they’ve made – both financially and in terms of national pride.

  The Canadians are doing their goofy thing to gain exactly the plaudits they’re gaining from the media, instead of being good soldiers and doing the right thing, which is to let the Japanese do their thing. And in case you’re thinking that the Japanese would be too invested or corrupt to cancel due to a public health crisis, you should learn more about Japan, whose people and government I trust the most out of any on earth to manage a pandemic like this.

• Tim 12:24 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  Who will make the decision to cancel the Olympics? Japan or the IOC?

• dwgs 13:51 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  Spoke to my relative today, the sea cans with the bulk of Team Canada gear were supposed to be loaded on a freighter this morning to make the journey to Japan. There was barely time to prevent them being loaded. There are many many moving parts here and time is critical. There are many many repercussions if people go through the motions to appease the IOC and the JOC.

• dwgs 14:01 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  Aaaaand it’s official, they’re cancelled. If Canada hadn’t pulled the plug when it did all their stuff would be on a cargo ship right now bound for Tokyo, where it would then be put on another ship immediately and sent back.

• Kevin 17:41 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  @dwgs
  Dick Pound says he expects they’ll be cancelled, but the IOC has not officially cancelled or postponed the games yet.

  (People need to be much better at writing headlines)

• dwgs 20:08 on 2020-03-23 Permalink

  I got alerts from two different sports sites I follow saying that they were cancelled. It seems that somebody jumped the gun.