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It’s podcasting time! This is Just Another Jerk, Dispatches from Japan! I am Jonathan Isaacson. Remember to subscribe to the podcast wherever it is you get your podcasts. Probably Apple or Spotify. But you can find the podcast in a lot of other places too, so subscribe! While you’re there, give it a rating and maybe even a review! And definitely share the podcast!

So, let’s talk about the Olympics. I know I made an episode a while ago about my thoughts about the Olympics before they started, but now they have just finished, so I think it’s a good time to talk about them again.

So, did I watch the Olympics? A little. I didn’t watch them very much. And not really any of the big events. I mostly watched the events that I am really interested in. So I watched a lot of the cycling events. Of course, these were not on TV, but I was able to watch them on the internet, so that was nice. I watched the road races, the mountain bike races, some of the BMX and track events. And I watched some other events here and there.

What did I think of the Olympics? Well. I think they were a mistake. I mean, I enjoy watching sports - at least the sports I like. I don’t have a whole lot of interest in watching things like tennis and gymnastics. For me, highlights are enough for those sports. But for sports I like - cycling, soccer, and a few others - yeah, I really like to watch them. ANd it was really nice to be able to watch cycling in the middle of the day. Usually, if I want to watch high level cycling, like the Tour de France, I have to watch it late at night because late night in Japan is morning or early afternoon in Europe, where all the big races are. So, that was nice.

But there were a lot of other problems with the Olympics, both specific to this year, and more generally.

So, this year, of course, there’s the coronavirus problem. Japan has seen a really large spike in numbers of cases at the exact same time as the Olympics. Are the Olympics the cause of the rise in numbers? Of course I can’t say whether or not there is any connection between having thousands of people coming to Japan from all over the world and the rise in Covid cases. I mean, pretty much all over the world, the numbers of cases are rising right now, so it might just be coincidence - there might not be a connection. But I know that having thousands of people coming to Japan at this time is not helping reduce the number of cases in Japan.

Even if all the people coming into Japan for the Olympics are Covid negative, the people in Japan want to see the Olympics. For example, I remember seeing the news right after the opening ceremony - there were hundreds of people around the Olympics stadium - watching from the outside. And for some of the events like the skateboarding - dozens of people - probably more than 100 - were crowded on a bridge where they could at least see a little of the event. When the delta variant is spreading rapidly in Japan. Of course there was no social distancing. So, Tokyo having more than 4000 cases isn’t surprising. And that’s just the Corona related problems with the Olympics.

Other problems with the Olympics are much bigger, systemic problems. For one, the nationalistic element is a problem for me. Why do athletes need to represent their country? Sure, if you love the country where you come from, it might not be a problem, but what if you are a really good athlete from a country that has a lot of problems? I think the athlete from Belarus is a good example. She’s a good sprinter, but she doesn’t like the government of Belarus, which I understand. The president of Belarus is a very problematic leader.

So for Krystina Timanovskaya, the sprinter, if she does well representing Belarus, the president will use it for good PR for the country. But Timanovskaya doesn’t like the government of Belarus. So what should she do?

So, yeah, and then there are all the demands the international Olympic committee makes of the host country. Do you know how much the Tokyo Olympics cost? Over 3 trillion yen! And there are still people who need new houses after the East Japan earthquake and tsunami from 10 years ago.

And then there’s the issue of which countries win almost all medals - the rich countries. The countries that can afford to put money into training facilities and the like.

So I guess what I want to say is that I like watching sports, but I would prefer a new format - not the Olympics. Something new needs to happen to make the sports more fair for the entire world. And to keep the costs down. Cities shouldn’t spend 3 trillion yen to host a sports event. Media could decide to cover the various world championships, and promote those. And if everyone agreed to that, it would still be great. So, yeah. I guess I really am not a big fan of the Olympics, especially as I get older and learn more and more about everything that goes into the games besides the sports.

Please remember to subscribe, rate and review the podcast wherever it is you cast your pods. This podcast is on most of the major platforms - Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, Pandora - probably some others. If it’s not on your favorite platform, let me know and I’ll look into getting it on that platform as well. You can find the twitter for this podcast @justanothercast. You can email the show at justanotherjerkpodcast@gmail.com. And you can find all that information on the website- tinyurl.com/jerkpod. That’s all for me. I’m Jonathan Isaacson, and I’m out. Peace.