The Big Sort: 6 - Olympic Stadium
Japan National Stadium and Yoyogi Park
2021.07
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A month before the Olympics last year, I went to see the stadium and found it completely enclosed by white construction walls about 2 meters high. I tried to peer through wired gates, peel back some of the tarp, peep in through any tiny gap, but they had sealed the place like those suitcases wrapped in cling film. A policeman saw me getting too close to the restricted entrance and told me off for taking a snap. In the end, the best view was its distorted reflection on the mirrored windows of the building on the opposite side of the street. It felt fitting.
I had been dreading the Games for years. I’d heard about the increased policing, mass evictions in favelas, ballooning budgets in Brazil, which led to some digging: Rio 2016, London 2012, Beijing 2008… Soviet Union 1980, Nazi Germany 1936. https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/my-grandmother-the-nazis-and-the-shadow-of-the-olympics
(And they still insist the Olympics is apolitical lol.)
I wasn’t always a cynic. When the Tokyo vote was announced in 2013, I was elated — who wasn’t? I associated it with joy, unity, inspiration, Usain Bolt and chicken nuggets, the Gifu-born Takahashi Naoko winning the women's marathon. I was optimistic its role in the post-Great East Earthquake recovery.
But in the build up to the Games, my neighborhood park, Yoyogi Park, felt like a microcosm of all the bigger complications. When it reopened after its pandemic closure (as a measure to restrict COVID cases), orange plastic sheets sectioned off about 80% of the park leaving crowds of people to run in small circles with masks on in 80% humidity. Huge white walls and barricades propped up everywhere. Blue tents disappeared with evictions of the homeless. Piles of steel poles and concrete blocks just lay there while the city scurried to turn an unpopular Olympic viewing area construction into an exclusive vaccination site at the last minute. The soup kitchen lines on a weekend mornings grew so long I couldn't see the end.
I tried to talk about the things that I was observing, but the conversations felt restricted. We'd end up hitting a wall of either-or fallacies: But how can you not support an event where athletes are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible? My stance was different. I can love athletic achievement, and still question the Olympics has on hosting countries. I can love living in Tokyo, and still be critical. But after a few attempts of trying to talk about the Olympics, the self-doubt creeped in. Maybe I am just being a pessimist, I told myself.
With questions unresolved, I returned to the stadium to see a protest. There were crowds of people waving illustrations of Thomas Bach as the devil, carrying signs that read "Profit over people," and chanting to cancel the Games.
Reuters live-streamed it on YouTube. The headline?
“Fans gather outside for Opening Ceremony.” Comments restricted.