As we work our way through June and head ever closer to the July start date for the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo a year later than intended, everything seems to be on track despite some calls for the event to be cancelled. Punters will certainly be excited to see the games return as one of the largest sporting events in the world, but there are plenty of interesting facts that had emerged about the event too despite the turbulent year that has been seen.
A robotic event – It has been known for quite some time but the IOC partnership with Toyota for the Olympics will be bringing a new robotic experience to the Olympics, whilst the games rely on a huge number of volunteers it had certainly been a point of concern with the ongoing pandemic but something that has been addressed particularly without knowing. Small car-like robots will fetch sporting equipment used during the events and may help to reduce the time between events as the clean up effort is kept to a minimum, whilst also reducing the required human presence in volunteers and making the games much easier to host in one sense.
More environmental focus – It’s no surprise to many that Japan would be one country to put a huge focus on a sustainable way to deliver the Olympics and have made it a goal to do so in a number of different ways – the first has been with the medals as the bronze, silver, and gold medals will be made up from waste materials that would’ve otherwise found their way to landfill from electronic devices like mobile phones. The Olympic torch will used recycled aluminium for 30% of its material and the torch will be lit by hydrogen to offset carbon usage. And finally, the athletes village will also be much more sustainable, with beds made of super strong cardboard rather than wood in an effort to cut down on material usage throughout.
The new Olympic stadium and existing venues – Rather than building everything new and much like the previous point with a more environmental focus, Tokyo are set to re-use old buildings from the 1964 games by refurbishing many to deliver a nostalgic feeling to the event too – there’s also the new 60,000 seat national stadium too, although it’s likely that once the games start there will probably be limited fan attendance if any at all so the seats won’t be filled, the design is still interesting as much of the construction is made from timber to offset the buildings steel structure, bringing something else unique to the games.