Don't repeat the Doha tragedy in Tokyo! Athlete First is October 24, 16:24

What is the highest stage for athletes?
There may be a lot of answers such as "Olympic Games" or "World Championships". For the Olympics once every four years, the World Championship is held annually or every other year depending on the competition.
The common point is that the gold medal is given to the winner and gets the title of “the best in the world”.
Athletes pour everything towards that goal.
However, something unusual happened on the highest stage.
A player who has a bitter expression in the heat, and a stand of garagara.
From the complaints one after another at the first track and field championship in Middle East Qatar,
I want to think about what athlete first is.
(Sports News Department reporter Yuta Yamamoto)

Shock just before the opening

"Women's marathon men's 50km race is canceled"
The French media reported shocking news just four days before the start of the tournament. The reason was “hot”.

Qatar's capital, Doha, has a daytime temperature of over 40 degrees at the end of September.
Therefore, considering the physical condition of the athletes, road events such as marathons and racewalks were decided to start after 11:30 midnight. This is the same response as the Tokyo Olympics, which started at 5am and 6am.

Even so, even in the evening, the temperature is over 30 degrees Celsius and the humidity is over 70%. Anxiety from athletes and officials arose, and the International Athletics Federation will take an extraordinary action to announce again that the competition will be held as scheduled 10 hours before the start of the women's marathon on the first day of the competition. It was.

Women's marathon that was too harsh

A women's marathon that managed to get started.
However, the race was extreme.

All the Ethiopian powers of the powerhouses abstained in the first half. There were many athletes who developed dehydration along the way and distorted their faces in pain.

Of the 68 players who participated, 40 completed the race, and 28, more than 40%, abstained. The winning time of 2 hours 32 minutes 43 seconds was the slowest time in the history of the world championship.

Nakano Maruka who finished in 11th place is full of talking about “the toughest race ever.” The Japanese national coach, Yutaka Takeshi, did not hide his dissatisfaction, saying, “I don't want to run this race again.

After the race, the British BBC reported the words of the athlete who said, “I don't respect athletes. The great people who decided to hold the World Championship here are sleeping in a cool place now.”

Is it breakfast at 9pm? A player's body clock

It's not just the heat and humidity that afflicted athletes.
Men's marathon Yuuki Kawauchi confided the adjustments at the interview before the race.

“I live a life of reversal of day and night. I eat breakfast from 9 am to 10 am, rest a little from there, and run from 1 am in the middle of the night to practice until 3 am.”

Breakfast at 9pm.
Although it is the duty of the athlete to adjust to the competition time, he will sleep in the sun and continue running in the dark.
What will happen to the athlete's body clock?
I couldn't help thinking about adverse effects that couldn't be measured only with temperature and humidity data.

Jagara's stand Athlete's heart cry

On the other hand, the environment of the main stadium where the track and field events were held was comfortable.

What I noticed was an air-conditioner outlet installed around the stadium. During the interview, sweat did not erupt.

However, it was the vacant seats on the stand that discouraged athletes. Despite the fact that the vacant seats were conspicuous and originally a stadium that could hold 40,000 people (this time the seats were 20,000), the beginning of the tournament was 7200 people.

Even on the day when the men ’s 100-meter final, which is a platinum ticket, was held on land, the audience was just over 11,000.

In this situation, overseas media
"A ghost town and stadium"
Critics criticized that it was a catastrophic scandal.

I wonder if it was the athletes who were uglier than anything else.
“There are few spectators in the game played this season, including the domestic tournament,” said a Greek player who won a bronze medal for a female pole vault.
There are also other words that can be said to be the cry of the athlete's heart, such as “Where did the audience go” or “What is this world championship?”.

Difference in watching TV culture from life

Why did this happen?
One of the main reasons is Qatar's sports watching culture. Although Qatar has many sports fans, the majority of the people who watch sports on TV avoiding the heat are overwhelming, and even the popular soccer stands that most of the national league stands are vacant.

In particular, the tournament took into account the heat during the evening, and the main event was held after 10pm. Once they visited the stadium, many people left the venue when the final event was held on the track.

It was impressive that the staff of the Organizing Committee said unfortunately that “there is no culture to watch sports at the venue in hot weather”.

Tickets distributed free of charge are counterproductive

In addition, there was something that made me think about the subsequent response.
The organizing committee of the tournament, which felt a sense of crisis, distributed tickets free of charge to children and foreign workers living in Qatar.

Qatar is an unprecedented construction rush ahead of the World Cup in 2022. Of the population of 2.7 million, 2 million are actually foreign workers from South Asia and Africa.

The distribution of free tickets gradually increased the number of spectators, but this time the problem of watching manners emerged.

I felt uncomfortable on the fourth day of the tournament. On this day, there was a final of 5000m for boys, and crowds with various African flags were packed.

People who happily watch dances and sing songs.
However, there is no sign of calm when short-distance events are being performed on the track.
Even with the “On Your Mark” signal, some spectators continued to make noise with whistles and loud shouts.

A track and field event where the momentary delay of the start is fatal. As a watching manner, it was a disappointing action that was not allowed.

"Athlete first" to be asked

The International Land Federation considers this tournament, which was held for the first time in the Middle East, as a great opportunity to expand its new fan base, and the FIFA = International Football Federation is also similar to the success of the 2022 World Cup, the first in the Middle East I have high expectations.

In all cases, Qatar aiming to become a sports powerhouse, the Middle East was regarded as a new market, and the world's largest tournament was invited.

However, what emerged throughout the tournament was an environment in which athletes can perform at their best. The issue is whether the host city was able to provide it.

“Who are the Olympics and World Championships for?”
The answer is not difficult.
Now that the word “athlete first” has become known, it is important for the people who hold the tournament to keep the awareness of “who the tournament is for” and to root it in a wider audience. It is also a responsibility.
Even for those of us who are refraining from the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, it should be nobody else.

Reporter of sports news department
Yuta Yamamoto