Are the 2020 Olympics Cursed and Should They Even Be Happening?

This insider's opinion piece offers a perspective from a journalist living outside of Tokyo on why the Japanese people largely are unhappy about the Olympics happening at all. It is just one of several openly critical articles looking at everything from local resistance to the Games, to the financial motivations behind why it may be going ahead anyway, despite the fact that only about 16% of the local population is vaccinated.

It's hard to argue with the numbers around the finances of the Olympics and how much they end up costing host cities. As a lover of the Olympics, though, I can't agree with the author's call to abolish them. I think the world needs a unifying moment like the Olympics can offer and it always will. Still, there are some cities that benefit more from hosting an Olympics than others. The 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, for example, arguably established its reputation as a global city and jump started decades of progress.