By Joel Fitzpatrick,
There were milestones aplenty in 2019 for the next Summer Olympic city, but the longstanding concerns about Tokyo's often unbearable heat again surfaced, bringing headaches for local organizers and governments alike.
After another long, hot summer in Tokyo, it became clear that athlete and spectator welfare issues related to the temperature in the Japanese capital were not going away.
A number of athletes competing in an Olympic rowing test event in Tokyo Bay were treated for heatstroke-like symptoms on a 34 C day in August, giving a small-scale indication of just how it might play out in July and August next year.
But it was the 2019 athletics world championships in Doha, Qatar, that was the catalyst for a decision by the International Olympic Committee to drop a bombshell on the host city, some 8,000 kilometers away on the other side of Asia.
When the IOC witnessed runners dropping like flies, being carried off the course and into a makeshift hospital due to the heat and humidity at the women's marathon in Doha, it decided something had to be done to ensure the scenes were not repeated in Tokyo.
(Alisa Vainio of Finland is taken off on a wheelchair after the Women's Marathon at the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha) [Getty for IAAF/Kyodo]
And it is hard to argue a response was not required, given the winner, Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich, ran a time more than 15 minutes off her personal best and collapsed while talking to the media after the race. She at least finished, unlike 28 others who dropped out of the 68-woman field.
Less than a month later, the IOC abruptly called on Sapporo to come to the rescue and hold the Olympic marathon and race walking events. The capital of Japan's northernmost main island and former Winter Olympic host is a relative oasis of midsummer cool compared to muggy Tokyo.
There was fiery criticism from the capital over how the decision was handled and the lack of consultation with the Tokyo government, but the IOC stood firm.
"We had to move quickly and we didn't want speculation, we didn't want rumor and it was better to come out and say what our plan is," the IOC's Coordination Commission chief John Coates told Kyodo News at the time.
IOC President Thomas Bach said his organization had to demonstrate how seriously it takes athlete safety and performance.
"The Olympic Games are the platform where athletes can give 'once-in-a-lifetime' performances, and these measures ensure they have the conditions to give their best," Bach said.
The games' organizing committee had little option but to follow the IOC's lead but the Tokyo metropolitan government was vocal in its opposition, aggrieved that the decision came after it spent considerable time and resources preparing the city for the heat.
Gov. Yuriko Koike fought hard to keep Tokyo from losing an opportunity to showcase itself in front of the world due to what she declared was "a decision reached without an agreement."
(John Coates (center L) and Yuriko Koike (center R) attend a four-party meeting involving the major stakeholders in the 2020 Tokyo Games)
"We consider it an unprecedented turn of events for the IOC to make such an abrupt proposal with no consultation or discussion whatsoever with the host city Tokyo beforehand," Koike said.
But Sapporo won out, and in December it was announced that the marathons would start and finish in the city's landmark Odori Park, with athletes set to traverse a 20-kilometer loop based on the annual Hokkaido Marathon.
Later in the year, it was Russia that was feeling the heat when the World Anti-Doping Agency handed down a four-year international sporting ban on the country.
Citing the Russian doping authority's repeated infringements and an "extremely serious case of non-compliance," the WADA ban means Russian athletes who prove themselves to be clean will be able to compete at the Tokyo Games, just not under their country's flag -- a repeat of the situation at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018.
Russia has appealed the decision, but if it is upheld the host nation could prove one of the major beneficiaries.
The sport data analysts at Gracenote Sports predict a possible three extra gold medals could go to Japan if Russian athletes do not compete, with Japanese gymnasts, swimmers and synchronized swimmers most likely to profit.
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In its pre-WADA decision medal table forecast in November, Gracenote put Japan at 30 gold medals -- the number the country's sporting authorities have long targeted and by far an all-time high.
The past year also saw some loose ends tied up, most notably the decision to strip the International Boxing Association of its role in overseeing the Olympic competition due to governance, finance and leadership issues.
The boxing competition and schedule -- featuring five weight categories for women and eight for men -- was finally locked in at the end of July.
And in late November, the new National Stadium -- one of Tokyo's first major PR disasters -- was also declared ready to go after surmounting concerns about a potential cost blowout led to a redesign of the games' showpiece venue.
"We have to show the world what Japan is capable of doing, and use the games as an opportunity to open doors to the country's future," said Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a ceremony in mid-December to mark the completion of the gleaming, wooden-roofed behemoth in central Tokyo.
(The new National Stadium)
"This stadium is a perfect stage to do those things."
There are just 210 days to go until the 2020 Games kick off at the National Stadium with the Olympic opening ceremony, but Tokyo may have to weather more bad news before the sporting fun can begin.
In June, Japanese Olympic Committee chief Tsunekazu Takeda officially stepped down from his position due to an investigation into bribery allegations linked to Tokyo's games bid.
Prosecutors in France are continuing to investigate the case in which they have accused Tokyo's bid committee, of which Takeda was president, of paying a consultancy fee that was used as a bribe to win the 2020 Games.
Takeda was the JOC's longest-serving president and was due to be elected for an 11th term when he resigned, but now he and the organizing committee must wait to see whether French authorities will bring charges for the more than $2 million payment to a Singapore-based consultancy.
(Tsunekazu Takeda (R) speaks to reporters in Tokyo after announcing his decision to resign)
Inevitably, though, the attention will turn to the athletes ahead of the games' opening on July 24. Already, some big names have qualified, while others -- like surfing legend Kelly Slater -- have missed their chance.
Most venues are completed or nearing completion, with many already tested over the past summer. The most significant hiccup came when an E. coli spike led to the cancellation of the Paralympic triathlon swimming leg of a test event in Tokyo Bay in August.
Organizers blamed heavy rain for the water quality issue, but the city got a more dramatic taste of the havoc weather can wreak when Typhoon Hagibis landed on the Rugby World Cup a little over two months later.
Two matches were canceled, one at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama where Olympic soccer matches will be held during the games, and Tokyo went into gridlock as all trains in the city and wider areas across the country were suspended.
One Olympic test event was impacted; a BMX cycling competition at Ariake Urban Sports Park was condensed into one day to beat the impending arrival of the typhoon, a type of contingency that Olympic organizers will hope they can avoid next summer.
Given the incredible demand for tickets, with local sales oversubscribed this year, venues and local infrastructure are set to be packed to the brim, meaning a Hagibis-sized typhoon landing at an inopportune time could lead to chaos on an Olympic scale.
