I hope all our US readers are having a great Labor Day long weekend. I also got a flood of emails from Canada chastising me for not realizing it was also Labor Day weekend there. I hope all our Canadian friends have a sensational weekend.
The Olympic committee has invested 13 billion dollars since 2016. The Olympics expects to attract 11 million visitors next year to watch 11,090 athletes compete in 33 sports over 21 days.
Seven sports competitions will be held in 5 cities outside of Tokyo; Sapporo, Sendai, Kashima, Saitama and Yokohama. All competitions will be in 42 locations, mainly in metropolitan and commercial areas and in Tokyo Bay. There will be 339 disciplines including the following new events; 3 x 3 basketball, mixed doubles in table tennis, relays in triathlon and track and field, karate, skateboarding, climbing, baseball, softball and surfing.
While 7 of the venues were used in the 1964 Olympics, 24 venues are ready, 10 will be temporary and 8 are under construction for these games. The new Tokyo Olympic Stadium has a capacity of 80,000 spectators.
All Olympic medals are fabricated with recycled metal obtained from cell phones, computers, cameras and tablets. They are using 4,100 Kgs of silver,2,700 Kgs of bronze and 30.3 Kgs of gold. The medal podiums will be manufactured from 45 tons of recycled plastic recovered from the oceans. Japanese athletes’ garments are also made with recycled materials.
The games will show off new technology and innovation. Sixteen robots will help guests carry their meals and drinks and escort them to their seats. The official cars that will transport athletes, teams, organizing committee members and guests will be autonomous and powered by hydrogen. Over 300,000 athletes, staff, journalists and guests will use facial recognition to identify them in 0.3 seconds and accelerate their access to stadiums, gyms and other locations. The Olympic Village with a capacity of 8,000 people will be powered by hydrogen with no CO2 emissions.
The best way to get around Tokyo is on the highly efficient subway system with 760 stations. All Olympic venues inside and outside Tokyo connect to the cities transport system. Guests will be able to buy a smart card for using trains, subways, buses and even hotel rooms. It will also work with Autonomous taxis. Train and Metro tickets range between $1.30 and $17.89.
The first phase of ticket sales for Japanese residents sold 3.2 million tickets. Event ticket prices range between $18.00 and $2,764.00. More than half the tickets will cost around $74.00. The $2764.00 tickets are for the opening ceremony. The cheapest tickets are for the Marathon, Hockey and soccer. International ticket sales will commence in June 2020, however ticket sales from authorized vendors are now available. People attending from Latin America, North America and the Caribbean must complete an application.
The 2020 Paralympics will feature 4400 athletes in 22 sports in 200 events. Taekwondo and badminton will premier at the Paralympic competition,
Naturally the U.S. trails in gold medals because every time we win one, we hand it over to the Chinese to pay off our debt.