This show has a strong focus on the upcoming delayed Tokyo Olympic Games.
The South African Hockey team qualified for the RIO Olympic Games but failed to compete due to an agreement that had been reached between their own Hockey Association and the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee. To rub salt into Africa’s wounds their place was not taken by another Africa team, but by the highest ranked team that had failed to qualify. (The Right to Play God Puts the Olympic Ideal At Risk). Now having qualified the South African players are having to raise money in order to get to the Tokyo Games while everything is working against them. There are many people giving up their time in a voluntary capacity to give the team not only the best chance to get there but also to participate. We catch up with Austin Smith who shares with us the current situation facing the team and how anyone in the world can help them fulfil that dream. (You can Donate here)
The situation raises a whole load of other talking points, such as should teams at the Olympic Games now be able to wear sponsors logos on their kit? The impact on a team such as South Africa not playing as many tournaments as the top teams and their inability to climb the World Rankings because of that and how that could affect sponsorship opportunities and funding.
Moving onto our topics under discussion, never has a host city voiced its opposition so loudly against an Olympic Games going ahead; possibly Mexico 1968 being an exception. There were protests in Rio and we are witnessing even more opposition in Tokyo, so what does that mean for the future of the Olympic Games? Is it sustainable in one city?
Ashley in this podcast looks at why the Games going ahead? Is it for the athletes? Or is it for other reasons that have very little to do with sport or the athletes?
Will this be the most prophetic statement coming from the New York Times: ” Whatever the outcome of the Games this summer, they could have profound ramifications for the entire Olympic movement, which has relied for decades upon an idealised promise of inspiration and civic pride to support enormous expenditures and increasingly onerous demands on host cities.”
John then surmises on what sport is going to look like post Olympics and Post Pandemic. Will it ever be as it was before? What will be the long term impact?
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