Cheering to be banned for Tokyo Olympics

Test negative for Covid. Don’t eat, drink or cheer. No high-fives. Masks a must. The bar is high for Tokyo Games spectators.

The National Stadium, the main venue for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Picture: Behrouz Mehri/AFP

Spectators at the Tokyo Olympics may have to show a negative virus test result before being allowed to enter venues and could be ejected if they break rules banning eating, drinking and cheering.

A draft of proposals makes clear that if people are allowed to watch events live, it will be under strict rules that will quell the celebratory atmosphere.

According to details printed in Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper, spectators may be required to present a negative PCR test taken within the previous week or proof of vaccination along with their entrance ticket. The cost of testing must be borne by spectators who will also face temperature and other health checks and be required to wear masks.

According to the newspaper: “Security guards will be stationed at venues, and means are planned for violators to be refused entrance, or asked to leave if already inside.

“At the venues, the measures taken will include a health check at the gate, the constant wearing of masks, and the staggering of the exit flow.

“During competition, eating and drinking will be prohibited, along with loud cheering and high fives.”

Olympic spectators will be “strongly urged” to go straight to their homes or hotels after events, without stopping at restaurants or bars, and to avoid gathering in “fan groups” outside venues. Public viewing events in front of big screens in parks and stadiums will be cancelled or reduced.

Tokyo and other big Japanese cities are under an extended state of emergency as the country struggles with a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic that has overwhelmed hospitals in some areas. Opinion polls show that most Japanese oppose the holding of the Olympics and Paralympics.

Protests continue in Japan against the Games. Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images

The Olympic authorities have already decided to exclude spectators from overseas. A ruling on whether residents of Japan will be allowed into venues has been repeatedly delayed, and is promised next month.

Toshiaki Endo, the vice president of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, said he would prefer events without spectators in order to sooth fears that the Games could turn into a superspreader event, but that the decision had not yet been made. Unlike most Olympic officials who maintain a public stance of complete confidence that the Games will go ahead, Endo acknowledged the possibility of cancellation if the pandemic gets worse.

“Hypothetically, can we hold the Games if there is a sudden ten or hundred-fold increase?” he told Reuters. “We’ll need to make a decision at the time.”

He added: “I personally had thought we should quickly decide to hold the Games without spectators to reassure everyone. But of course if you think about this from the point of view of the athletes, they want to compete while being cheered on by the spectators. That’s why, if possible, we’d like to allow the spectators in . . . but depending on the situation we also need to consider the no-spectators option.”

He added that members of the media arriving to cover the Games would be “subjected to movement controls”.

The emergency measures, which cover most of Japan’s population, had been due to be lifted this week but will be extended to June 20, just over a month before the Olympic opening ceremony on July 23.

The Japanese government has come under increasing pressure to cancel the Games, which have been postponed since last summer. Doctors’ organisations have called for them to be halted, as have prominent business leaders and Japan’s second biggest newspaper, the Asahi Shimbun, which is an Olympic sponsor.

The Times