Surfing, skateboarding, Simone Biles and COVID are in the mix.
Surfing, skateboarding, Biles in gymnastics and COVID-19 are in the mix
The Tokyo Summer Olympic Games have arrived unlike any other in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the complexities it has created to put on a major international sporting event.
What unfolds over the next 17 days will include images of triumphs and loss, and questions about the rationale of plowing ahead amid rising infection rates.
Here are six summer stories to follow through the closing ceremony on Aug 8: THE COVID GAMES >> No matter how hard the International Olympic Committee tries, the once-in-a-century coronavirus will remain the central theme of the Tokyo Games.
As infection rates in Japan reach their highest levels in six months, everyone involved in the Olympics is under strict orders to test, test and test again.
A few athletes have had to leave the Olympic Village because of infections while others who contracted the virus never made it.
Tokyo organizers recently said the Games could be halted if a major outbreak occurs. Stay tuned for that political quagmire. In the meantime, Japan has taken all the
precautions it can to minimize the risk.
Government leaders have banned spectators from the gleaming stadiums and arenas constructed for the sports festival.
They have put Tokyo and surrounding prefectures in a state of emergency and have limited the estimated 80,000 athletes, officials, staff and media from interactions with the Japanese public.
THE FLIGHT OF SIMONE >> U.S. gymnast Simone Biles arguably is the greatest Olympic gymnast in history. She certainly can leave Tokyo with that claim. Biles, 24, might be the biggest attraction for the Summer Olympics, at least from an American perspective.
She is primed to become the first gymnast to win consecutive Olympic allaround titles since Czech star Vera Caslavska did it in 1964 and ’68.
Biles anchors the favored U.S. women’s team that is on the Olympic stage for the first time since the Larry Nassar scandal involving the sexual abuse of hundreds of female athletes that brought shame and scorn to USA Gymnastics. THROWING A POOL PARTY
Stanford graduate Katie Ledecky will never be confused with the now-retired Michael Phelps. But the low-key Ledecky has a chance to leave Tokyo as the most decorated female Olympic swimmer ever.
Ledecky, 24, already has 15 World Championship titles, the most in history. She enters the Tokyo Games with five gold medals and one silver medallion. Ledecky needs to win four gold medals to pass another Stanford swimmer, Jenny Thompson, to become the Olympic leader. Ledecky plans to swim freestyle races over 200 meters, 400, 800 and 1,600. She also will compete in at least one relay.
She would need to win six medals to tie Dara Torres and Thompson with 12 medals for the biggest Olympic haul for a woman.
None of this will rival Phelps, who earned 28 medals, including 23 gold, in five Olympics.
END OF SUPERPOWERS >> What’s going on with U.S. basketball and now the women’s soccer team that opened the Tokyo Games with an embarrassing 3-0 defeat to Sweden?
It has been a rough summer so far for teams that rarely lose.
Kevin Durant’s Team USA lost consecutive games to Nigeria and Australia earlier this month in preOlympic tuneups in Las Vegas. A lineup filled with NBA players looked sluggish against Nigeria after their long season.
But come on. The United States had lost a total of two games in international play from 1992 to June 2021. But from another perspective, this builds intrigue into the men’s Olympic tournament. As Olympian Draymond Green has said, almost everyone roots against American dominance.
The women’s basketball team, filled with iconic stars like Sue Bird, 40, and Diana Taurasi, 39, also had a stumble a week ago. The WNBA all-star roster was not enough in a 7067 defeat to Australia. The women also lost to Team WNBA in an all-star game, marking the Americans’ first consecutive defeats since 2011.
But this team is good. It’s difficult to imagine anything less than a seventh consecutive gold medal.
The reigning world champion women’s soccer team, however, left a lot of questions on the pitch after the thrashing by Sweden on Wednesday.
Like the women’s basketball team, the American roster is filled with talent including Carli Lloyd, 39, and Megan Rapinoe, the fiance of basketball’s Bird.
The U.S. women came to Tokyo looking for redemption after failing to medal for the only time at the Rio Games in 2016. They are seeking their fifth gold medal but have acknowledged it won’t be easy to claim it.
JAPAN’S TENNIS QUEEN >> Naomi Osaka, 23, made headlines this year when withdrawing from the French Open tennis tournament instead of being forced to do the required media interviews after her matches. Osaka, a HaitianJapanese player ranked second in the world, said she needed a mental health break from tennis. She also skipped Wimbledon.
But she is expected to be one of the host country’s biggest attention grabbers. Although her family moved to the United States when she was 3 years old, Osaka has represented Japan throughout her career.
“An Olympic Games itself is special, but to have the opportunity to play in front of the Japanese fans is a dream come true,” she wrote in July before the government instituted a ban on spectators. “I hope I can make them proud.” EXTREME FUN
In an attempt to inject youthfulness into the Olympics, IOC officials are introducing skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing to the menu. They join a growing list of extreme sports making it to the Olympic stage, including mountain biking and BMX and snowboarding in the Winter Games.
Skateboarding will command a lot of attention with American Nyjah Huston going against Japan star Yuto Horigome.
Surfing faces a more difficult stage because the sport is dependent on wave conditions. The waves are waist-high in Chiba as the Olympics begin, but optimists say a swell could be on the horizon.
“It is probably not going to be very good surf,” said Kelly Slater, surfing’s all-time great who just missed qualifying for the Tokyo Games. “But everyone has equal opportunity and they will have to compete against each other. In terms of that it’s a fair competition.”