The silence embraces the visitor from the moment they set foot in Haneda airport.
"These are
Fujitsu Games
", they joke within a group of expedition members who have just landed in Tokyo and that, like the rest of the Olympic convoy that has been disembarking in recent days in the Japanese capital, must continue strictly adhere to the strict sanitary protocol.
There is no exception.
Everything is filters and more filters, an endless bureaucratic web that in one of the steps ends up intercepting a member of the British team, arms akimbo, resigned and with the face of a good girl before the officials: gazapillo in the form, then
stop
.
Braking.
More hours in line.
More information
Fear and emptiness in Tokyo before the Olympics
The gymkhana of the Olympic controls
In this way, these Games are so aseptic and so anomalous, so extremely paradoxical, are raising the blind.
The greatest sports festival, the great popular festival of athletes and the meeting point for fans from all over the world, will take place between emptiness, depth and absence.
It is the Tokyo of contrasts, that of the sparkling lights that delimit the bay and the fade to black that the restrictions generate.
For the first time in history, there will be no public in the stands or commotion in the Olympic Village, where silence, monastic life and seclusion prevail this time.
There, the athletes watch from the windows and reflect.
Lost in translation
, version 2021.
“Everything is different, much colder.
It changes completely ”, portrays tennis player Carla Suárez, representative of a sport in which silence accentuates the feeling of loneliness like few others.
“You hear everything, it's like training.
They are going to be strange Games, because the athlete is nourished by the support of the fans and the emotions that are generated in the stadiums ”, adds the Canarian, while the world prepares to witness a completely new show, without the applause or the merriment. live;
athletes parading exclusively for the cameras and celebrating towards an empty stand;
surreal airs, because they themselves will put on the medals.
It will be a quality appointment and patience will be rewarded
MARTÍN FIZ, FUNDSMAN
“For me, that psychological kick that the fan gives you is the best. What I like is to run with people on both sides of the street, let them cheer you on, because there are always moments when you let yourself go a bit, and that breath is what makes you be alert and say: ' Hey! What to follow '. The public helps you stay focused ”, says the marathoner Martín Fiz, who participated in three Olympic events and would exchange the Olympic diploma he obtained in Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000) for a last medal attempt in Tokyo. "Without hesitation. Games without an audience are not the same, but I think they always offer an unparalleled incentive to the athlete ", wields the Vitorian, world and European champion.
The specialists are now debating how the protagonists will process the anomaly and what will be their emotional response. “I think those who are calmer will do better, while those who are too intense can afford it. They are going to be the Games of patience, of who best adapts to the circumstances. Those who do not know how to manage the restrictions well can collapse ", continues Fiz, whose explanation finds the counterpoint of Ruth Beitia, gold in jumping five years ago in Rio:" Deep down, the athlete already has internalized a series of very daily routines. marked, and not much gets out of there. I think there is a lot of myth around the Olympic Village, and in reality everyone is usually very focused on what to do ”.
Bolt celebrates with the public the triumph in the 4x100 relay in Rio 2016. / SHAUN BOTTERILL (GETTY) Shaun Botterill / Getty Images
In any case, they both agree that several records may fall in the next two weeks.
“They are going to be quality Games, made by brands”, anticipates the 58-year-old Basque.
“We are in atypical times, but great records are being broken.
I have the feeling that the pandemic has made athletes even more eager to compete.
They have worked a lot to get here and nothing is going to muddy it, ”the 42-year-old Cantabrian continues.
Controlling the emotional component will be essential in the midst of a very different scenario.
This is warned by Carlos Rey, sports psychologist at UPAD, Madrid Psychology Center.
“The fact that there is no public and removing that festive ingredient, that multicultural exchange so typical of the Games, is going to have an impact on motivation.
At the group psychology level there is a process of social facilitation, which refers to feeling observed or surrounded by other people;
It is not the same to laugh yourself at home with a meme than to do it with your friends ”, he says;
"And there are also other processes such as social loafing, which affects collective sports, although they are not as linked as the first to the presence of spectators."
The pandemic has made them want to compete more
RUTH BEITIA, SALTADORA
Having pointed out the negative nuance, Rey then introduces the positive variable: “The absence of the public can favor the concentration and attention of the athletes, because that external factor that is the fan sometimes plays in favor, but sometimes against it. In this sense, it can help them control their revolutions and emotional adjustment. In the soccer league, for example, the fact of playing at home has lost its usual significance ”. And Beitia adds: “Contrary to what you might think, I think that this reaffirmation that we athletes usually do, the taps and those encouragement that we give ourselves just before executing, will be even more effective. Many of them appreciate that there are no sounds to concentrate; there is nothing more beautiful than that moment in which you are about to start and everyone is silent,when you can chew the silence ”.
Beitia, after achieving gold in Rio.
/ REUTERSIVAN ALVARADO / REUTERS
The psychologist Rey adheres to the theory that performance can skyrocket in this edition, “since the elite athlete is quite used to living in such very sacrificial routines, and more in recent times.
By themselves, they live in a kind of ghettos, high performance centers, so they are used to dedicating themselves body and soul to their activity.
Concentration can be an important asset in these Olympic Games.
With fewer environmental factors that can be a source of distraction, performance can also skyrocket, "he concludes.
Everything is different, much colder.
Looks like a workout
CARLA SUÁREZ, TENNIS PLAYER
At the same time, Fiz still fantasizes and says that he enjoyed that experience "like a dwarf" in '92, when he ate in the dining room of the Olympic Village with idols such as basketball player Larry Bird or peer Sergei Bubka, and although he points out that the parade Inaugural will not be as special as other times, it foresees an attractive rise of the curtain in television key: "In this sense, we already know that Asians tend to go a little further, so they are capable of surprising us."
And despite all the skepticism in the preamble, Suárez is clear: “The conditions are what they are, so we have to be positive and be thankful for the fact that we can compete here.
Games are Games.
What do we have to hang ourselves medals?
It seems exaggerated to me, but hopefully: if you have to do it, do it, eh? ”.
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