Let The Games Begin? Really?

The Tokyo Olympics are still on as of this writing.  And no one knows why.

Japan is still experiencing a COVID surge big enough to remind the rest of the world that the pandemic isn't over.  The Japanese government can't distribute vaccines fast and efficiently enough - a peculiar situation in a country known for making car parts fit to the attometer and where the rail system is so punctual that a train entering a station half a second is considered late.  Most Japanese citizens want the Games delayed again or put off entirely.

So why do the organizers plan to go ahead?  Money.  It became very lucrative for advertisers and TV networks to profit from the Games when the Winter and Summer Olympics were staggered biennially rather than taking place in the same calendar year every leap year.  Holding the Summer Olympics in Toyo five months after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing - which would mark the first time the Games have been held in the same calendar year since 1992 - doesn't square with the International Olympic Committee's or the Tokyo organizers' venal schemes.  Making a profit off these Games is already in a precarious state, what with non-Japanese spectators not allowed due to COVID and the prospect of in-person spectators for the Games dim due to the same acronym.   It would seem to suggest that the organizers think it would be more profitable to have the Games now than later, in spite of the pandemic.

Look, I want to see the Summer Games too. I want to see Katie Ledecky swim again, man!  (Though, I can Simone Biles any time in those Uber Eats commercials.)  But it would make more sense to delay the Summer Olympics just one more year, so then foreigners can travel to Japan and feel more comfortable going there, as would the broadcasters.  I'll bet the Tokyo Games could still make money for all of those involved if they're held in 2022.

And if it turns out that Tokyo has to cancel the Olympics entirely, well, then, we'll always have Paris.

In 2024.