Japan deserves another crack at this. Whether the Olympics go ahead in full or not the people of Tokyo and Japan should be given the choice of hosting the Olympics again in 2036.
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With this Olympics, Japan is getting one of the greatest sporting events in the world for all the cost and very little of the benefit.
It has been widely reported about the discontent in the Japanese community about these Olympics continuing in the middle of a pandemic which currently has the country in a vice-like grip.
Sitting here in lockdown, with nowhere near the cases Japan is seeing, it is easy to understand Japan's concern.
It is estimated the Games will cost Japan more than $15 billion to host. The cost of hosting the Olympics versus the return has often been questioned, particularly in recent decades.
Yet one thing Australia can attest to is the nation-building, community-building impacts that hosting an Olympics can have as it indeed did during the Sydney Olympics. Yet Tokyo will get few of those benefits.
As a country we converged on Sydney in 2000 to get a taste of the Games experience, volunteers and spectators coming from all around the nation. Two decades on, the opening and closing ceremonies as well as those iconic sporting moments live large in our memories still.
On Wednesday night we watched as the IOC voted Brisbane as the host of the 2032 Olympics in what was a one-horse race, There was no other bid. How five IOC delegates still managed to vote no was a little bit amusing. Who were they going to vote for?
Well, given that it is clear the IOC will run a process for a result which is already decided, why not offer Japan and Tokyo the right to host the 2036 Olympics again should they want it?
They might not, but perhaps offer them the opportunity of re-hosting as compensation for putting on this event despite the pandemic gripping the country and indeed the world.
It would be Japan's third time hosting the Olympics, but that's not unique and in fact the city of London has hosted it three times itself.
It would be a terrific gesture by the IOC.
Read our full Olympics coverage here.
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Julian O'Brien
Editor of the Illawarra Mercury and former editor of The Advocate (North-West Tasmania). Journalism is simply about telling good stories well and we do so now across a broader platform than ever before. Our role as a regional masthead is to not only share the stories our readers care about but to be a passionate torch bearers for community at every opportunity. We are stronger together.
Editor of the Illawarra Mercury and former editor of The Advocate (North-West Tasmania). Journalism is simply about telling good stories well and we do so now across a broader platform than ever before. Our role as a regional masthead is to not only share the stories our readers care about but to be a passionate torch bearers for community at every opportunity. We are stronger together.
