On July twenty third, twenty twenty one, the very first Olympics held on an odd year happened in Tokyo, Japan, after a year delay due to the COVID nineteen pandemic. Olympic History and what all happened to lead to the twenty twenty one Olympics today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And today's trivia question to listen out for is when was Japan first awarded the Olympics. Now, the Olympics started way back in eighteen ninety six and has been ran every four years since for the Summer Olympics. But in nineteen sixteen they actually canceled the Olympics that were actually set to be held in Berlin, Germany, but they canceled it due to the World War One and awarded them the nineteen thirty six Olympics in nineteen thirty one. As they just abandoned this did not postpone it as they didn't know how long the war would last and they didn't want to delay it too long. Then, in nineteen forty Tokyo was awarded the Olympics for the first time, but sadly due to the same reason, it was canceled due to World War Two, and they had actually requested to abandon the Olympics in nineteen thirty seven due to the Second Shinyo Japanese War, but later came back and told them they could host as they thought the war would be over. But the Second World War took over and took president but the IOC actually attempted to still have the Games as they moved it to Helsinki, Finland, but still the war took over in Europe even more and they canceled the entire event, and in forty four the Games were set to be held in London, England, which again the war was still going on and devastation had caused many countries to not even think about sending athletes as many of their athletes were participating in war efforts. As this was towards the tail end of World War Two, and we had a great run of no major issues until two thousand and twenty, when the world was dealing with a global pandemic. Because of this pandemic, attending the Olympics as an athlete in the fan was going to be very different as fans were very limited and many competitions didn't have any availability at all, and they released over seventy pages of different protocols to attend these games. And it wasn't until May of twenty twenty three that the pandemic was officially declared over by the World Health Organization, so this was technically in the middle of the pandemic. Although vaccines were starting to become available, many countries still didn't have that option and were still in lockdown and the only fans allowed were actually Japanese fans that had been quarantined in Japan. No foreign spectators were allowed, which is a huge difference in one of the main draws to host the Olympics, which was a challenge for Japan, and the main thing they were doing was they were testing for COVID basically constantly for the Olympic event. Over one hundred thousand tests were done throughout the entire Olympics. For athletes, officials, coaches and you made it self quarantine fourteen days before traveling to Japan and they would be tested for seventy two hours prior to their travel as well as when they landed. It would be tested at minimum every four days, and if an athlete tested positive for COVID, they would be required to isolate and would not be allowed to compete in the event, and they would start contact tracing for that athlete. Masks were mandated at all times outside of the competition, as well as social distancing and no contacts such as hugs, high fives, or handshakes. Although the IOC strongly recommended athletes to get vaccinated, it was not a requirement, but it estimated about eighty percent of the athletes did get vaccinated before part TI dissipating in the Olympics, and the athletes were required to arrive no more than five days before their first event and leave within two days of their final event, and they were unable to leave the Olympic village for any activities at all besides activities that related to competing, and could only go to pre approved locations. With that all being said, it doesn't mean that there wasn't great moments in these Olympics. They still had the opening ceremony, which included the Parade of Nations, and for the first time at the opening ceremonies, they actually took a moment of silence for the victims of COVID, but at these Olympics they were able to hold all thirty three sports including kayaking, sports, climbing, surfing, and skateboarding, which all made their debut at this Olympic. So during this entire event with COVID going on, athletes interacting with each other from different countries, only thirty one people actually tested positive for COVID, including three members of the minute, three members of the media, sixteen contractors and twenty one athletes, which is an astonishing number as there was over eleven thousand athletes. So it just goes to show you when these athletes are disciplined and this is one of the most important moments of their lives and already missed it by a year. They didn't want to miss their chance at possible glory of winning a gold, and a fraction of a percent actually tested positive and overall it went very similar to normal Olympics as the US, as it normally does in the Summer Olympics led the medal count with a total of one hundred and thirteen medals, with China finishing number two with eighty nine medals. In Japan, the host country finishing with fifty eight medals, and that was the same order for the top gold medals, as the US had thirty nine, China had thirty eight, and Japan had twenty eight. In a total of eighty six countries one medal at this Olympics, with over two hundred and fifty nations competing. This did reach a global audillions as there was three point zero five billion people who watched this Olympics, with a total overall of twenty eight billion video views, which represented a one hundred and thirty nine percent increase compared to the two thousand and sixteen Rio Games. And it was the first time the games were streamed on a digital platform rather than just being regular broadcasted. But the question of was the Tokyo Games a success, and that's a hard one to answer. For one, it lost money, it didn't generate tourism, and they put billions of dollars into the infrastructure and they're not recouping that. But it was a success and it showed that the world can still come together even though overall the world was having a pandemic. But despite all of that, we were able to come together for some normalcy and have an Olympic game. Yes, it a year later. Yes, there was no fans and it was very different, but it allowed us as a world to connect, and in that way I could call it a success. And an international survey sixty five percent of respondents labeled the Tokyo Games success in eighty percent of the Japanese residents viewed it in a positive light. So overall, even though money wasn't made, money is not everything sometimes when it comes to sports. And I want to thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, please I want you to stop what you're doing. Send a text to a buddy you say, hey, check this out. Use that little triangle share icon. Check this out. Let's both talk about all the sports we can learn about from Daily Sports History. And we'll see you tomorrow for more Daily Sports History. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question? When was Japan first awarded the Summer Olympics? And it was in nineteen forty when they cancel the Olympics due to World War Two, which means they're a part of two times that the Olympics had either been postponed or canceled.
