Two weeks before the start of the Tokyo Olympics, a state of emergency has been declared by the Japanese government in its latest attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19. It’s another setback for these Olympics, which have already been postponed for a year and will now go ahead without any spectators. With concerns that the Tokyo […] … learn more→
Tag Archives: Olympics

Holding the Tokyo Olympics without spectators during COVID-19 emergency puts the IOC’s ‘supreme authority’ on full display

All the Olympics are a stage, and all the athletes merely players: the rich history of the modern Games
The Olympics transfix us. Six in every ten people in the world – including both you, dear reader, and me – watched the London 2012 Olympics. Use of the word Olympics increased in relative frequency 3,300% between 1924 and 1984. But what are the Olympics to us, how are we to read them socially and […] … learn more→
College relations: Boston’s brains behind the Olympics
In a fascinating op ed in the Boston Globe recently, Andrew W. Lo, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Tom Rutledge, chief investment strategist at Alpha Simplex Group, looked at how the area’s colleges and universities might support Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Olympics. The reaction across Boston to the City’s […] … learn more→
Maths + Sport: exploring the hidden maths behind the Olympics
By what length would Usain Bolt beat you if you raced him in the 200m? Are the long jump or shot put world records more likely to be broken in some Olympic host cities than others? Does the host nation for the Games have an advantage when it comes to winning medals? How does the […] … learn more→