Olympics 2021 - should they go ahead?

[The jiffle king]

Very simple. Do you think the Olympics should go ahead ?

There is a lot of pressure not to and now some sponsors are not sure

[Kermit power]

I think they should. The whole thing is just getting absurd now. People's lives are being completely ruined by the reaction to Covid.

If necessary, run it behind closed doors and insist on everyone participating being vaccinated before they get there, but if we don't start moving life back to normal, quite frankly what the hell's the point of living?

[Mr Pointy]

Kermit power said:

I think they should. The whole thing is just getting absurd now. People's lives are being completely ruined by the reaction to Covid.

If necessary, run it behind closed doors and insist on everyone participating being vaccinated before they get there, but if we don't start moving life back to normal, quite frankly what the hell's the point of living?

The problem is the Japanese vaccination rate is very low & you can't exclude all Japanese from the event - they are literally running it. The risk is those running the event will pick up the virus from the athletes, coaches etc & take it back into the general Japanese population. There simply isn't time to get everyone vulnerable in Japan vaccinated.

[Kermit power]

Mr Pointy said:

Kermit power said:

I think they should. The whole thing is just getting absurd now. People's lives are being completely ruined by the reaction to Covid.

If necessary, run it behind closed doors and insist on everyone participating being vaccinated before they get there, but if we don't start moving life back to normal, quite frankly what the hell's the point of living?

The problem is the Japanese vaccination rate is very low & you can't exclude all Japanese from the event - they are literally running it. The risk is those running the event will pick up the virus from the athletes, coaches etc & take it back into the general Japanese population. There simply isn't time to get everyone vulnerable in Japan vaccinated.

There is time to vaccinate athletes and people working at the event though.

[ShinyPsyduck]

It should go ahead. I know in weightlifting the lines are very blurry right now and the athletics need to meet a certain amount of weigh ins throughout the year to stay on track for the Olympics. I am pretty sure a lot of doping will be taking place right now during this window and if cancelled there's no reason not to dope for some athletes.

[The jiffle king]

ShinyPsyduck said:

It should go ahead. I know in weightlifting the lines are very blurry right now and the athletics need to meet a certain amount of weigh ins throughout the year to stay on track for the Olympics. I am pretty sure a lot of doping will be taking place right now during this window and if cancelled there's no reason not to dope for some athletes.

A question as a sports fan. Do you have anecdotal evidence of additional doping or is it a suspicion? I sense that lots of athletes in all sports are doing legal supplements but the boundaries have blurred over the years.
A friend of mines parents were in charge of doping control in Poland and he used to tell me that they knew who was on it by their behaviour with the testers.

[ShinyPsyduck]

The jiffle king said:

A question as a sports fan. Do you have anecdotal evidence of additional doping or is it a suspicion? I sense that lots of athletes in all sports are doing legal supplements but the boundaries have blurred over the years.
A friend of mines parents were in charge of doping control in Poland and he used to tell me that they knew who was on it by their behaviour with the testers.

I dont have any evidence myself but I do follow the weightlifting chat closely. I know that your "supposed" to get less than 24 hours notice of a drug check but it varies between countries and sports. Listening to the chat though it seems the people who would be likely to dope will have taken advantage of covid for sure. Matt Fraser was on Joe Rogan discussing this a couple weeks back as well which is worth a listen.