Summer Olympics/Paralympics, Tokyo, delayed to 2021

[cdbearsfan]

Or, if you're fancy, The Games of the XXXII Olympiad.

Surprised no thread already on this but it does seem to have gone under the radar a bit more than usual. Not helped by all the attention being on the Euros, then Wimbledon, etc. With no crowd and a fair few events on at stupid times for British viewers, it may be more low-key than usual, but I'm still looking forward to it. Particularly, in engrossing myself in sports I would never normally watch.

Starts tonight (well, Wednesday morning) at 1am, with an Australia vs Japan softball match. Great Britain women kick off the football against Chile tomorrow morning at 8.30, then it really gets going on Saturday, after Friday's opening ceremony.

Britain is forecast to do much worse than in 2012 or 2016, with an estimate of 13-14 golds. Hopefully whatever tally they end up with will be enough to stuff the Aussies in the medal table.

Oh, and good luck Douglas Luiz, the first Villa Olympian. Less good luck to treacherous Quisling Mana Iwabuchi. I hope she scores ten own goals.

[Axl Rose]

I admire your enthusiasm, mate.

There isn't much here, to be fair. It'll change if Japan win a few gold medals, I'm sure.

Bach is public enemy number 1, currently. Rikako Ikee is the darling of Japan after her heroic battle with leukemia, and rightly so.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Will Osaka be playing in the tennis?

[Axl Rose]

I think so mate, yes. A big favourite here, of course, but there is an irritating, twattish percentage of people who claim she isn't really Japanese. She's Japanese if she wins, foreign if she loses, types.

My mother in law absolutely loves her, and was gutted that despite getting tickets (we had to enter a ballot type thing for her and wait online for about 6 hours) she won't be able to actually watch any matches.

[cdbearsfan]

Feel really sorry for the fans not getting to actually attend, especially if they'd had the excitement of getting tickets prior to the announcement. I never went when it was in the UK, to be fair. Would probably have at least gone to a football match or two if that idiot Lerner hadn't withdrawn Villa Park so that we could make improvements to the ground which never actually happened.

[Axl Rose]

The university I work for here has provided a large number of previous Olympic athletes for Japan over the years. Particularly in judo and volleyball. One of the perks of working for said university is that we got given alot of free tickets for a wide range of events. In certain cases we were to act as chaperones for students etc etc

I was quite looking forward to the track events like relay, plus the rugby sevens and surfing/rock climbing.

But having only just received one vaccination dose at present, I'm kind of relieved I don't have to go. Alot of my students are still doing the Olympic volunteer gigs, however, despite not receiving a single vaccination.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Have put in for a few 0f the Commonwealth events, but obviously not as big as the Olympics.

Glad that Osaka is playing.

[cdbearsfan]

Hope she wins.

[cdbearsfan]

Britain women football team kick off in twenty minutes on the BBC.

The competition consists of three groups of four, with the top two in each and the best two runners-up progressing to the final. Britain might be better finishing second rather than top as that would likely mean they couldn't face USA until a potential Gold Medal match.

The men's competition, starting tomorrow, is a more straightforward four groups of four. No Britain team, as England under-21's didn't do well enough in qualifying events.

[Scratchins]

  A Scottish reporter on R5 this morning arrived in Tokyo on Friday and he and his camera man/producer are having to isolate until the 31st.

[Villa Lew]

2 nil to GB

[cdbearsfan]

Comfortable win for GB, and the Americans are losing two-nil to Sweden.

[cdbearsfan]

One of the American women has her sleeves tucked into her armpits so she's effectively playing without sleeves. Isn't that against the rules? Seem to remember Cameroon producing a sleeveless shirt and FIFA banned it.

[cdbearsfan]

Her sleeves now seem normal, guessing the referee must have told her while I was pissing about in a spreadsheet.

[cdbearsfan]

America getting pumped. Three-nil.