sports.yahoo.com
Japan's Olympic organizers lied about its weather, and now athletes are paying the price
In its bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics, Japan claimed "this period provides an ideal climate for athletes to perform." It doesn't, and they lied.
Sports
TOKYO — The finish line of the men’s triathlon Monday morning looked something like a battlefield scene, bodies sprawled out on ground, trainers coming to the aid of overheated athletes, even a few being helped off with their arms draped over shoulders.
This despite the Olympics moving the start time to 6:30 a.m. in an effort to beat the heat that, as these Tokyo Games have proven, remains undefeated. Temps still reached 85 degrees with a relative humidity of 67.1 percent at start time.
No, the Japanese don’t have to apologize for the weather here — the searing sun, the sky high temps, the pea-soup humidity. No one tells Mother Nature what to do.
But as athletes continue to wilt and wither in these conditions, they do owe everyone an apology for this much: They lied like hell about it.
“With many days of mild and sunny weather, this period provides an ideal climate for athletes to perform their best.”
This quote comes from Japan’s official proposal to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Mild? Ideal? Here in Tokyo in July?
“I wasn’t enjoying it at all,” Russian tennis player Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova said after competing Saturday in conditions that have caused everyone from archers, to volunteers to officials to faint.
Daytime temps have hit the mid to upper 90s, with dew points in the mid-70s, a mix that assures triple digit heat indexes. This is a tropical location. Venues such as tennis, beach volleyball, cycling and others are open and exposed.