The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 24 July 2019 *** 5
FROM TICKETS TO TRANSPORT:
HOW READY IS TOKYO?
TEAM GB THE EDGE
We finish our tour at the Odaiba
School for children aged between
five and 15, which will be trans-
formed next year into a “perfor-
mance lodge” that is actually closer
to many of the venues than the
Olympic Village. It has a
200 metres athletics track, an
indoor swimming pool and two
air-conditioned gymnasiums.
Following Team GB’s arrival next
year, complete with seven 40ft
containers of equipment, there will
also be a bespoke gym and boxing
ring as well as medical and
rehabilitation space and quiet areas
to relax and refuel. Unlike the
Olympic Village, where there will
not be sufficient accreditations for
a likely support staff of 800, Team
GB will have the keys to the front
door, so can provide a central base
for athletes, staff and invited
friends and family to congregate.How they secured such a sought-
after base early in 2017 is instruc-
tive. Following consultation with
the British Embassy, discussions
with the school and local authority
involved not just the cost, but how
Team GB could create a lasting
legacy.
Team GB athletes have since
visited to show the Odaiba
schoolchildren their medals and
much of the training facilities and
kit will be left for the residents.
“We are conscious of needing to
be good guests and saw this as a
great oasis to finish off the most
comprehensive model we have
ever delivered,” says Paul Ford, the
deputy chef de mission. In 12
months, the meticulous planning
will come to fruition. And rest
assured, discreet trips to Paris, and
perhaps soon even Los Angeles,
are already under way.Ticket sales
Tokyo 2020 organisers have
used a staggered system,
with first priority given to
those within Japan before a
secondary sale overseas.
Japanese residents were
able to take part in a lottery
system, with more than
7.5 million people register-
ing. The first phase of ticket
allocations was announced
in June with 3.2 million sold.
Overseas tickets are sold via
authorised sellers. People in
Britain looking to purchase
tickets must do so via the
Team GB Live website.Venues
The core focus of activity
will take place in the Tokyo
Bay zone, featuring a
number of new venues built
for these Olympics, largely
on unused brownfield
sites, and the
neighbouring
Heritage Zone,
which reuses
facilities from
the 1964
Olympics. The
Athletes’ Village
sits at the point
the zones intersect.
The new 68,000-
seat Olympic Stadium has
been built on the same
footprint as the previous
National Stadium, the focal
point in 1964. The new
venue is on track to be
completed by November,
ahead of test events. Unlike
at London 2012, there is no
centralised Olympic Park.
Events will also take
place outside Tokyo, with
cycling and surfing some
distance away. Football
matches will be held across
Japan. Of the 43 venues to
be used, eight are new, 25
existing and 10 temporary.
More than half of the new
venues are complete, with
only the aquatics centre
construction due to run
into next year.Transport
As Tokyo is already one of
the busiest cities in the
world, there is some
concern about how a
strained transport system
will cope with the addition
of hundreds of thousands ofpeople for the Olympics.
The organisers’ answer is
simple: ask local people to
stop travelling at key times.
Dedicated Games lanes
are unlikely to be em-
ployed; instead, organisers
will ask people to avoid
driving at rush hours and
businesses to conduct
deliveries at night.Public support
Support for Tokyo 2020
seems to be strong if judged
purely by the number of
people who have applied to
play a role or attend.
More than 200,000
people applied to fill the
110,000 volunteer places at
the Olympics and Paralym-
pics, while ticket applica-
tions were so popular that
the deadline had to be
extended by 12 hours.
As often happens
with hosting major
events, the
overspend has
gone into many
billions, which
has lessened
mass support
across the
country. There
have also been
reports of violations of
human rights among
workers at some of the new
venues being built.Innovations
Robotics will be used
extensively, even in the
mascots (above), while
electric golf carts will ferry
people to venues and facial
recognition will be used for
media and workers.
To mitigate the heat, the
marathons will begin at
6am and the route has been
painted with a substance
which organisers claim
reduces the road surface
temperature and therefore
air temperature above it by
up to eight degrees.
There has been an
emphasis on sustainability,
with more than six million
old mobile phones and
electronic devices collected- from which the 5,000
Olympic and Paralympic
medals will be produced.
The podiums will be made
from recycled waste.
Ben Bloom
In association withРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS