On Wednesday evening, the world could see again what makes sport: that people watch it.
One can rightly call it madness to fill Wembley Stadium almost to the brim during the phase of the expansion of the Delta variant in Great Britain. But that great sport only gets its true self back when there is an audience around it, when it gets loud, when emotions are involved – this was impressively demonstrated by this European Football Championship. That is one of the ambivalent feelings that this European Championship will leave behind.
There will be television pictures of competitions, there will be outstanding sporting performances that will be broadcast from there, there will be curious stories with a lot to tell. Simone Biles will enchant the professional world with her gymnastics. But after the last somersault, she’ll bow, and a few supervisors will clap. Then exit.
It’s just a show
So that is clear: The decision of the Japanese hosts to completely exclude the audience in view of the tense situation in the country is sensible, it is the only right one – if you are already fundamentally determined to whip through these games. Despite an emergency. And the IOC and the Japanese organizers have never made a secret of this. They really want the games. TV and sponsorship money is too important.
Certainly there are Olympic disciplines that the audience will miss less than the spectator sport soccer does. There will also be many athletes for whom an Olympic victory is and will remain the greatest, even if it is won in the pandemic and without applause. But it’s a stale Olympic victory.
What kind of party is it that no guests are invited to? It is a performance show, the best measure their strengths, but everything that the Olympic Games still make up in all the gigantism, the atmosphere, the international, the exchange, that people come together and watch sport together – all that is taken from this event.
There have been Olympic Games in the past that radiated sterility. There were competitions at the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, to which only a few people or people not particularly knowledgeable about the sport got lost, in the cold and darkness, but that is something different. After all, there were well-attended and celebrated disciplines such as short track or figure skating. And all of this did not take place under a bell jar that Corona imposes on these games.
The journalists who travel to Tokyo are subject to numerous restrictions, and so are the athletes. Tokyo will be a joyless event. No matter how much some athlete, some athlete will also cheer for gold. Allow them to do that.
Every television picture from Tokyo from July 23rd to August 8th will broadcast one message above all: Sport needs an audience. And if that is not guaranteed, then you can admire the sporting achievements, you can keep your fingers crossed at home. Everything possible. But it will ultimately be a deeply sad event. Ceterum censeo: Which actually shouldn’t have taken place at all.
