Olympic Swimming In Hot Water…And Brown, Murky, Slimy & Polluted

Courtesy of Swimming World Magazine, Odaiba Marine Park, Tokyo Bay, Japan.

The occasionally-discussed, minor-problem-in-the-big-Olympic-picture debate about whether or not the location of the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim should remain at Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo Bay seems to not go away. While the IOC and FINA decision to stage the marathon swim in Tokyo Bay is not popular among some swimmers and some coaches, a decision to possibly move the venue is apparently off the table.

Fernando Possenti, the Brazilian coach, holds an opinion that is typical of the governing bodies and coaches around the world. He told the Associated Press that athletes need to deal with the environment and not waste time complaining about it. “Program yourself, adapt your athletes to this kind of condition. This particular sport contemplates direct contact with nature and its variables. Heat and humidity are two of them,” reports Craig Lord of Swimming World Magazine [here].

Lord reported that one of the reasons that the IOC and FINA reportedly will not move the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim to a location other than the designated venue of Odaiba Marine Park is because “the Odaiba venue was picked partly because it offers picturesque 180° views of the skyscrapers that hug Tokyo Bay and the bridges that cross it.”

It is understandable that American television executives – in particular those from NBC that has paid US$7.75 billion to broadcast the Summer and Winter Olympics from 2022 through 2032 – have a powerful say (or, perhaps more accurately, the final determination?) in scheduling and venue location. “While the TV angles during the marathon swim will show the Rainbow Bridge and other high-rise buildings around Odaiba Marine Park in background shots, it is shocking to me that the NBC, IOC and FINA executives believe those long-range TV shots are the best TV views of a marathon swim in Tokyo,” opined Steven Munatones. “There are so many other alternative, beautiful locations – with cooler and significantly cleaner water – within 90 minutes of the largely stagnant water of Odaiba Marine Park.

Ask any number of local Japanese residents of Tokyo and ask them if they would go swimming in Odaiba. When locals do not want to enter the brown, murky, polluted waters, these opinions are telling – but are currently ignored by the NBC, FINA and IOC decision-makers.”

But it is good for Catherine Kase, a leading American coach and influential voice with global aquatics, express her opinions about the value and benefit to move the marathon swim from the current location [see here].