2 l July
18 - 24, 2021
Northeast Oregon TV Weekly
The same but different: Summer Olympics
return post-pandemic
BY GEORGE DICKIE
Shrouded in uncertainty and a year late, the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics get going this week with as much anticipation as
any in recent memory.
Kicking off Wednesday, July 21, two days before the
Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 23, NBC along with
USA Network, CNBC, NBC Sports Network, Golf
Channel, Peacock, Olympic Channel, Telemundo, Universo,
the NBC Sports app and NBCOlympics.com will provide
over 7,000 hours of coverage of 33 sports. Among them
are swimming, diving, basketball, gymnastics, track and
field, beach volleyball and boxing, plus new sports karate,
skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing and returnees
baseball and softball.
More than 11,000 male and female athletes from 206
countries will be at these games, the status of which was in
doubt as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. There will
be no spectators at any of the venues, thanks to a state of
emergency in the Japanese capital. But despite the anxiety
and all the restrictions in place, Mike Tirico, NBC’s prime-
time studio host for these games, thinks Tokyo will make a
fine host city.
“This is one of the great cities in the world,” he says, “and
I think tourists from around the world would’ve come to
the games. And I think that’s just the unfortunate part of
this timing for the host city. You know, you plan seven years
out for the games and this would’ve been such a spectacular
games. And as you know, there’s so much culture ...
U.S. gymnast
Simone Biles
competes in the
2020 Tokyo
Olympics on
NBC and other
outlets.
“Having said that, I think they’ll put on a great games,”
he continues. “The venues were, according to the IOC,
more ready and prepared than any city that hosted the
Summer Games, so we were really in for a great games. So
from a preparation standpoint of the venues, the facilities
for the athletes, I think that’s going to be still as good as
possible.”
In the weeks prior to these games, Tirico has been
crisscrossing the country, taking in qualifying events in
various sports and making note of athletes to watch. And
he’s also looking at the big stories. In particular, Usain Bolt’s
absence means there will be a new fastest man in the world.
And he sees U.S. gymnast Simone Biles adding more medals
to her collection and the American swim team dominating
as well.
And in soccer, the U.S. women’s team will look for a
modicum of redemption for their deflating loss to Sweden
in the quarterfinals in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 when they
face that country early in competition.
“Coming off the success of the World Cup,” Tirico says,
“I think the likes of Megan Rapinoe and everyone else
has become extremely popular athletes in this country.
And they’re just one example of what I think is the overall
strength of Team USA in Tokyo and that is the women’s
teams. ... It really will be a lot of the focus of the coverage
and of America’s best medal chances coming from many of
those women.”
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