The stark contrast between COVID-19 protocol in the athlete’s village and what happened in the stands is a problem
Team United States cheer on Chase Kalisz of Team United States in the Men's 400m Individual Medley Final at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on July 25, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.have a problem. Well, another one. This time it’s grasping reality.
About two- or three-hundred athletes, coaches and officials have taken up all the best seats. They’re lumped together by country. Some are the requisite seat away from each other . Some very much are not . When a Japanese competitor was introduced, the Japanese went bonkers. When the Americans won, they chanted “U-S-A. U-S-A.” The French had soccer cheers. The Germans had a cheerWhen an out-of-nowhere Tunisian teenager won gold in the medley, cameras swung to a single Tunisian in the stands, mask off, bellowing like Hercules right after the 12th Labour.
A third of all Japanese have one vaccine dose. A quarter are double-vaxxed. Why weren’t those people given a chance to show up? Maybe they wouldn’t be so dead-set against this tournament if they had been invited to participate.Story continues below advertisementSome of these decisions seem arbitrary, others self-defeating. Watching the stands at swimming on Sunday, they all seemed ridiculous.
You establish your props: temperature checks, hand-sanitizer stations, security guards at the hotels, phone apps that track the new arrivals and snitch lines.And then, having sufficiently covered your ass, you let everyone do whatever they want. If anyone calls you on it, you point the finger back at them. Hey, we told you not to do that, didn’t we?During the ceremony proper, the athletes are masked.
Then, presumably, they went back to the village to relive their triumph through Plexiglas shields in the athletes’ cafeteria. Because of safety.“ had a sign that said ‘Mask On’ and ‘Mask Off’,” Kalisz said. “If I had my mask off, it was because some guy was holding a sign.”
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