Cursed Olympics crippled by sexism scandals heatwave and cancellation fears

When Japan won the bid for the 2020 Olympic Games eight years ago, it sold itself as a "safe pair of hands". In reality, it has proved anything but.

Plagued by a series of damaging executive scandals, the Covid pandemic, spiralling debts and a dangerous heatwave, the competition is already buckling under the weight of expectation.

Just this week, the farcical number of high-profile resignations swelled as the director of the opening ceremony was dismissed a day before the Games begin on Friday.

Kentaro Kobayashi was sacked after it emerged he had made fun of the Holocaust - adding to previous storms over sexism, bullying and a bribery probe.

Support for the Games within Japan has plummeted, with around 80 per cent of residents wanting the event cancelled or postponed due to the mounting billion-pound costs and health crisis.

After Taro Aso, the deputy prime minister, admitted last year that the country's Olympics bid appeared "cursed", here is it how it has swung so wildly out of control.

Bosses axed over sexism, bullying and Holocaust rows

Kobayashi's dismissal is a fresh blow to the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, which had already been scrambling for credibility following a plethora of avoidable scandals.

The opening ceremony chief made light of the mass murder of six million Jews by the Nazis in a script for a 1998 comedy act, including saying, “Let’s play Holocaust.”

The Great Britain rowing squad look ahead to the Tokyo Olympics (Image: Getty Images for British Olympic Association)

It drew a stinging rebuke from the Jewish human rights group The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, with Rabbi Abraham Cooper saying: "Any person, no matter how creative, does not have the right to mock the victims of the Nazi genocide."

The comments emerged just months after a composer on the opening ceremony team quit following claims he once bullied disabled schoolchildren.

Keigo Oyamada, who was also due to be involved with the Paralympics in August, admitted in a 1995 magazine interview that he had bullied childhood classmates with disabilities “without any regrets.”

The resignations follow a public backlash against 'sexist' comments made by committee bosses.

In March, Hiroshi Sasaki, the Games' creative director, resigned over demeaning comments made about a popular female celebrity in Japan.

Kentaro Kobayashi, the director of the opening ceremony, was sacked this week over comments made about the Holocaust

Last year, the executive told staff in a brainstorming session that comedian Naomi Watanabe could perform in the opening ceremony as an "Olympig".

The comments were branded "extremely embarrassing by the governor of Tokyo and Sasaki offered a grovelling apology as he stepped down.

“For Ms Naomi Watanabe, my idea and comments are a big insult. And it is unforgivable,” he said.

"I offer my deepest regrets and apologise from the depth of my heart to her, and those who may have been offended by this.”

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In February, Yoshiro Mori, the former Japanese prime minister, also resigned as head of the committee after suggesting women talk too much and that meetings with female board directors would "take a lot of time".

Two years ago, the head of the Japanese Olympic Committee Tsunekazu Takeda was also forced to step down in a bribery scandal linked to vote-buying, which involved members of the International Olympic Committee.

Games 'could be cancelled' as Covid ravages Tokyo

The scandals have proved an unwelcome distraction as Japan fights to keep the competition alive amid a surging wave of Covid cases.

Already delayed by a year, it was hoped the Olympics would be a shining light that proved the world was over the worst of the unprecedented health crisis.

Tokyo residents arrive for jabs in an area that was due to be a Olympics fan park but has now been turned into a Covid vaccination site (Image: Getty Images)

However, the Delta variant is now crippling Tokyo, with authorities on Wednesday reporting 1,832 new cases - the highest figure since January and a rise of 683 on the week before.

It has led to Toshiro Muto, the chief of the Olympics committee, this week admitting they would not rule out cancelling the games, saying they would hold "discussions" over infection numbers if necessary.

With overseas fans already banned from travelling, all spectators were barred earlier this month from attending most games in the capital, after the city declared a state of emergency.

“It will be an unusual way of staging the event amid a state of emergency,” Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese Prime Minister, admitted.

“But I want to show from Tokyo that the human race can overcome great difficulty through hard work and wisdom.”

Amber Hill became the first British star to pull out of the Games after testing positive for Covid this week (Image: PA)

Yet while the stands may be empty, there are fears the virus is quickly taking hold amongst the athletes themselves.

On Wednesday, shooter Amber Hill became the first British star to withdraw from the Games after testing positive for coronavirus prior to her departure to Tokyo.

The 23-year-old was due to compete in the women's skeet competition, in which she was a finalist at Rio 2016. She is currently the world number one in the discipline and was tipped to pick up a medal.

"There are no words to describe how I’m feeling right now," she said.

"After five years of training and preparation, I’m absolutely devastated to say that last night I received a positive Covid-19 test, meaning I’ve had to withdraw from Team GB’s shooting team."

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More worrying still, an outbreak has also hit the Olympic Village inside Tokyo, with at least four confirmed cases.

On Thursday, Dutch skateboarder Candy Jacobs joined two South African footballers and a Czech beach volleyball player who have been forced into isolation.

Olympic organisers said another eight cases were recorded on Wednesday, bringing the total positive tests for those linked to the Games to 75 since July 1.

Fears for athletes battling scorching heat

Away from the pandemic, another health crisis is threatening Japan - the temperature.

Across July and August in 2018 and 2019, more than a thousand Japanese residents died of heat-related causes.

The mercury in Tokyo has soared to a sweltering 33C in recent days, with the combined humidity said to make it feel closer to 39C.

The Team GB headquarters in the Olympic Village, which is battling a virus outbreak (Image: Team GB/facebook)

It's so hot, in fact, that a beach volleyball training session was cancelled earlier in the week because the sand was too scorching.

The temperature is set to make this year's Olympics the warmest ever and athletes have already been reported ill, with fears they could be subjected to conditions like heatstroke, dehydration and burns.

Last year, a construction worker reportedly collapsed and died from heatstroke during building on a competition site.

Officials have already decided to move the marathon event to Sapporo, a city 800km north of Tokyo, because of its cooler weather, but the region is recording its highest temperatures for 20 years.

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"I have lived in Sapporo for many years and I cannot recall temperatures in the mid-30s this early in the summer," Yoko Tsukamoto, a professor at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, told German news site DW.

"City officials are issuing warnings every day about the heat and telling people to make sure they drink lots of water, but it is going to be very hard for the marathon athletes to compete when it is this hot.

"I don't think many new records are going to be set at these Olympics."

Cost crisis as Olympics runs billions over budget

The sheer cost of delaying the games due to the pandemic has already set organisers back £2.2billion.

Yet according to some estimates, which are disputed by organisers, Japan's total bill could run as high as £25million - smashing the original budget of £5.5billion.

The National Stadium in Tokyo, which will be the centre of the Olympic Games (Image: FRANCK ROBICHON/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Bosses have been hit by a series of embarrassing climb-downs, including a costly £1.5billion proposal for Tokyo's main Olympic stadium, which was ditched after drawing comparisons to an oversized bike helmet.

The original Olympics logo also had to be scrapped following accusations that it had plagiarised the emblem of a Belgium theatre.

The spiralling costs amid a national health disaster have led to protests in the streets, with angry residents waving placards reading: 'Cancel the Tokyo Olympics.'

“This was a disaster in the making in the first place, even before Covid,” Victor Matheson, a sports economist specialising in the Olympics, told the broadcast station Voice of America.

An Oxford University study revealed the Tokyo Olympics is set to be the most expensive summer Games ever - and found every Olympics since 1960 has run over budget at an average of 172 per cent.

And there are concerns that Japan's struggles will only deter the already dwindling number of nations bidding to host future Games.

While 11 nations challenged to hold the 2004 Olympics, the 2020 Games was contested by only five. The 2026 competition was reduced to two candidates after a swathe of countries pulled out.

In the coming weeks, the heavy hopes of the world will rest on Tokyo's shoulders.

Got a story? Get in touch by emailing alex.bellotti@reachplc.com

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