The Tokyo Olympics 2020 men's football competition has reached a competitive level. Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and the host Japan have qualified for the semi-finals by eliminating their opponents in the quarter-finals. In terms of strength, Brazil and Spain will be the favorites to go to the final. However, Japan have been in good form since the beginning of the competition, while Mexico advanced to the last four by winning a goal-fest contest against South Korea in the quarter-finals. So their potential can't be ruled out. Who could proceed to the Tokyo Olympics 2020 men's football final is discussed in this article. Who are the Favorites to Advance to the Finals? 1st Semi-Final (Brazilvs.Mexico)  Venue: Ibaraki Kashima Stadium | Date: August 3 | Time (BST): 2 pm  Verdict: Brazil 2-0 Mexico  Brazil have been in excellent form since the start of the event. They are one of the favorites to win the gold medal in men's football at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Brazil have gone undefeated throughout the tournament and have performed well as a team. The team has a number of young promising players. The squad also includes renowned players like DaniAlves and Richarlison.Despite a hard-fought quarter-final victory against Egypt, they are favorites to beat Mexico in the semi-finals.  Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Men's Football Quarter-Finals Preview Mexico, on the other side, feel optimistic after defeating South Korea 6-3 in the quarter-finals. Mexico are now firmly believe that they can defeat Brazil in the semi-finals round. Football fans are anticipating a spectacular battle. Brazil’s expected starting XI Santos (GK), Guilherme Arana, DaniAlves, Diego Carlos, Nino, Bruno Guimarães, Matheus Cunha, Douglas Luiz, Richarlison, Antony, Claudinho Mexico’s expected starting XI Guillermo Ochoa (GK), Érick Aguirre, Jorge Sánchez, Johan Vásquez, César Montes, LuísRomo, Carlos Rodríguez, Francisco Córdova, Henry Martín, Diego Lainez, Alexis Vega Read England’s Bangladesh tour in jeopardy 2nd Semi-Final (Spain vs.Japan)  Venue: Saitama Stadium | Date: August 3 | Time (BST): 5 pm Verdict: Spain 2-1 Japan  Spain has formed a solid men's football team for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The Spanish team has been doing well from the start of the tournament. They have a better defense than the other teams in the competition. That's why scoring against Spain is tough.Spain advanced to the semifinals by defeating Ivory Coast 5-2 in the quarterfinals. Spain will strive to earn a place in the final by playing their best football against the host Japan in the semi-final. Read: Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for July 23-Aug 8 in 2021 Japan, on the other side, advanced to the semifinals after defeating New Zealand in a penalty shootout. Japan will have an edge because they are playing at home. This game should also be fascinating. Spain’s expected starting XI UnaiSimón (GK), Marc Cucurella, Óscar Gil, Pau Torres, Eric García, Martín Zubimendi, Carlos Soler, Marco Asensio, Pedri, Javier Puado, Mikel Oyarzabal Japan’s expected starting XI Kosei Tani (GK), Yuta Nakayama, Hiroki Sakai, Kou Itakura, Maya Yoshida, Takefusa Kubo, Ao Tanaka, Wataru Endo, Daichi Hayashi,Ritsu Doan, Yuki Soma Read Like father, like daughter: Gymnast vaults to bronze 25 years after father's silver Verdict According to the semi-finals schedule, Spain and Brazil are the two heavy favorites to qualify to the final of the men's football event at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. However, Japan and Mexico will do everything they can to upset the giants and secure a spot in the final. The best teams should advance to the championship match. The gold medal match of the event will take place at the International Yokohama Stadium on Saturday (August 7) at 5.30 pm (BST). Prior to that, the losers of the semi-final round will face off in a bronze medal match at Saitama Stadium on Friday (August 6) at 5 pm (BST).   Read At an extraordinary Olympics, acts of kindness abound

Turkmenistan was a part of the Soviet Union and their athletes formerly participated with the Soviet Union team. Turkmenistan competed in the 1996 Olympic Games for the first time after gaining independence. However, they are the only post-Soviet country that has never competed in the Winter Olympics. They've competed in seven Olympic competitions, including the ongoing event. Polina Guryeva earned the country's first-ever Olympic medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. She earned a silver medal in the women's 59 kg weightlifting event on July 27, 2021. In this article, we discussed how Polina Guryeva earned a silver medal in the Olympic Games.   Polina Guryeva is the First Olympic Medalist From Turkmenistan    Polina Guryeva is an ethnic Russian who was born in Ashgabat on October 5, 1999. She began her career with artistic gymnastics before switching to weightlifting. The 21-year-old earned gold at the Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017. She won a silver medal for her country Turkmenistan at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, making her the first Turkmenistan athlete to win an Olympic medal. She won the medal in the women's 59kg category. Read: Olympics Archery: Ruman Shana eliminated from recurve singles Guryeva dominated the snatch and clean and jerk events. During the pull, she lifted 96kg. She had to lift 96 kg twice but failed the first time she attempted that weight, but succeeded the second time. Guryeva excelled in the clean and jerk, lifting 121 pounds. Among contenders, that figure was also second best. Chinese Taipei's Hsing-Chun Kuo won gold in the event. She lifted 103kg in the snatch and 133 kg in the clean and jerk respectively and set two Olympic records. Mikiko Andoh of Japan took home the bronze medal. Countries with a Highest Medal Tally at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 The United States, China, and the host Japan are all performing well at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The United States dominated the medal table after the first six days of competition, with a total of 30 medals, including 10 gold. China is in second place, followed by Japan. Russia, Australia, and the United Kingdom are also doing well. The Olympics main attraction Athletics will begin on July 30. (Friday). Read: Naomi Osaka eliminated from Tokyo Olympics tennis tournament Meanwhile, Bangladesh's chances of securing a medal were crushed when Ruman Shana was eliminated from his two events. Ruman Shana was eliminated in the Round of 32 of the Men's individual event and the Round of 16 of the mixed team event, leaving Bangladesh with little chance of winning a medal this year.       Updated Tokyo Olympics 2020 Medal standings (Top 10 as of July 28, 2021) Rank Team Gold Silver Bronze Total 1 United States of America 10 11 9 30 2 People's Republic of China 11 5 8 24 3 Japan 12 4 5 21 4 ROC (Russia) 7 8 5 20 5 Australia 6 1 9 16 6 Great Britain 5 6 4 15 7 Italy 1 6 8 15 8 Republic of Korea 4 2 5 11 9 Netherlands 2 6 3 11 10 Canada 2 3 4 9                     Source: https://olympics.com/en/ Bottom Line Polina Guryeva of Turkmenistan earned an Olympic medal in weightlifting, which is a great achievement for the country. On the other side, Flora Duffy has won the first Olympic gold medal for Bermuda and Hidilyn Diaz has earned the Philippines' first-ever gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Bangladesh's participants will very likely return home empty-handed. Because Bangladesh’s best opportunity of winning an Olympic medal was from Archery.  

The beloved American gymnast Sam Mikulak flipped off the parallel bars, stuck the landing and blew a kiss toward the camera. Those watching the men’s Olympics gymnastic competition on television back home knew they’d seen magic. “Beautiful!” the broadcast announcer exclaimed. “Wow, that was fantastic!” But all around Mikulak, the stretches of wooden benches meant to seat thousands sat mostly empty. Cheers erupted from a far back corner of the stands, where Simone Biles and the rest of the women’s team screamed as loud as lungs could muster to cut through the eerie quiet of the pandemic Olympic venue. Read: Pandemic Olympics endured heat, and now a typhoon's en route In arenas across Tokyo, athletes accustomed to feeding off the deafening roar of the crowd are searching for new ways to feel Olympic enthusiasm. They’re rooting for each other as loudly as they can. Some are trying to envision fans at home in their living rooms, leaning into TV screens. They’re blasting playlists in backstage training rooms. The lucky few permitted to compete with headphones keep their phones in their pockets, tuned to songs with a beat to replace the thrill of applause. But others were surprised to find the silence motivating — like another day at the gym rather than the most prestigious competition on Earth. For them, the emptiness numbs the nerves and lets them fully focus on their sport. “It’s kind of nice,” said Mikulak, a three-time Olympian whose parallel bar routine helped usher him to finals. It barely feels like an Olympics to him, he said, but when he stuck that landing and heard his own team cheering, that felt like enough. “We created our own bubble. We had our own cheering section,” he said. “We created our own atmosphere. That’s what we thrive in, having each other’s backs.” Read: Olympics Archery: Bangladesh eliminated from mixed team event The next day, they returned the favor. The US men’s gymnastics team stood in the back waving an American flag and screaming for their female counterparts before the stadium fell quiet again, like the others scattered across Tokyo. At the Sea Forest Waterway rowing venue, grandstands that stretch for nearly 2,000 meters (yards) are empty all the way to the finish line. The events are so quiet, rowers can hear the ripple of their own wake and the flap of hundreds of national flags whipping in the breeze on the shoreline. What is typically a swelling crescendo of chants and rush of adrenaline over the final 250 meters to the finish line replaced by the labored breathing wracking their lungs. “When you cross the line and you’re hurting, and you feel like you are going to pass out and you don’t hear the ‘USA! USA!’, chant it hurts a little bit more,” said ÚS women’s rower Ellen Tomek, competing in her third Olympics and reminding herself that people are rooting from her from home. “Everyone is cheering us on, but when you are hurting and sad and you can’t look up for you mom in the stands, it sucks.” Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet the Bangladesh Athletes Other athletes, too, are trying to capture the energy of those fans at home, absent here but still somewhere in the world cheering them on. Japanese gymnast Mai Murakami said she was thrilled that her home country hosted the Olympics because she hoped many of her admirers could see her perform in person. When even Japanese citizens were barred from attending, she was devastated. “I get influence from the crowd, and that motivates me,” she said through a translator. The silence rattled her, she said, and she made a mistake in her bars performance. “This is my first experience without crowds, so I haven’t had that experience before. I couldn’t imagine how it would be, so I tried to have no emotion.” She tried to picture her fans watching on TVs and computers, applauding her from across the city. That brought comfort. Ágatha Bednarczuk, a Brazilian beach volleyball player, won a silver medal in front of her home country in 2016. This Olympics, she said, feels very different. “In Brazil, we had the biggest support. There were many, many people cheering for us, and here we had silence,” she said, drawing a flat line with her hand. “We need to put our emotion in the game, because we can’t receive emotion from them. For me, it’s very important to play with emotion so I had to bring it from inside.” Many say they are reminding themselves that they made it here — to the Olympics, a lifelong dream for many despite extraordinary odds including a pandemic that has killed millions and postponed the Games, and for a time threatened to sink them entirely. “I think that Olympic Games is enough of its own,” said Greece men’s water polo goaltender Emmanouil Zerdevas. “It’s a bit sad, but it is my first time in the Olympic Games, so I’m still happy to be here.” At the silent skateboarding venue, U.S. skater Jagger Eaton found a mood booster in the phone he occasionally fished out of his right pocket while competing to change the music. Skateboarders, unlike other athletes, are able to shut out the quiet by wearing headphones as they compete. Eaton chose the aptly named “Rollin N Controllin” by rapper Dusty Locane as his soundtrack to launch himself into the first-ever Olympic skateboard event, men’s street. “It got me right in the groove,” said Eaton, who struggled to skate for an empty crowd. “That’s why I am wearing headphones. When I wear headphones, I can create my own hype.” But others have been surprised to find peace in the silence — and a stronger connection to their sport than they tend to feel when the pressure is on. “Normally, coming into the finish line, when qualification is on the line, it’s deafening,” said U.S. women’s rower Michelle Sechser. “It’s the hardest part of the race. Your heart is pounding, your legs are pounding, your breathing is rapid. And it’s absolutely silent. It makes it almost like Nirvana.”

What a moment for Naomi Osaka. For the new Japan. For racial injustice. For female athletes. For tennis. The four-time Grand Slam winner lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday. Read: Tokyo Olympics begin with muted ceremony and empty stadium It was a choice that could be appreciated worldwide: In Japan, of course, the country where Osaka was born and the nation that she plays for; in embattled Haiti because that’s where her father is from; and surely in the United States, because that’s where the globe’s highest-earning female athlete lives and where she has been outspoken about racial injustice. Plus, everywhere in between, because Osaka is a superstar. But she has often received an uncomfortable welcome in Japan because of her race, with her family having moved to the U.S. when she was 3. Her emergence as a top tennis player has challenged public attitudes about identity in a homogeneous culture that is being pushed to change. It’s always a mystery until the last moment who gets the honor of lighting the cauldron. Sadaharu Oh, Shigeo Nagashima and Hideki Matsui were among the baseball greats who took part in bringing the flame into the stadium. And in a country where baseball is the No. 1 sport, Osaka was not necessarily expected to be given the ultimate honor. But there she was at the center of the stage when a staircase emerged, the cauldron opened atop a peak inspired by Mount Fuji and Osaka ascended with the Olympic and Japanese flags blowing in the breeze off to her left. She dipped the flame in, the cauldron ignited and fireworks filled the sky. “Undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honor I will ever have in my life,” Osaka wrote on Instagram next to a picture of her smiling while holding the flame. “I have no words to describe the feelings I have right now, but I do know I am currently filled with gratefulness and thankfulness.” Read: Olympics ceremony uses music from Japanese video games It capped quite a series of events over the past two months for the 23-year-old Osaka. Going into the French Open in late May, Osaka — who is ranked No. 2 — announced she wouldn’t speak to reporters at the tournament, saying those interactions create doubts for her. Then, after her first-round victory, she skipped the mandatory news conference. Osaka was fined $15,000 and — surprisingly — publicly reprimanded by those in charge of Grand Slam tournaments, who said she could be suspended if she kept avoiding the media. The next day, Osaka withdrew from Roland Garros entirely to take a mental health break, revealing she has dealt with depression. She sat out Wimbledon, too. So the Tokyo Games mark her return to competition. “The Olympics are a special time, when the world comes together to celebrate sports. I am looking forward most to being with the athletes that had waited and trained for over 10 years, for celebrating a very hard year (2020) and having that happen in Japan makes it that much more special,” Osaka wrote in an email interview when she was selected as the 2020 AP Female Athlete of the Year. “It’s a special and beautiful country filled with culture, history and beauty. I cannot be more excited.” There was a big hint that Osaka might have an important role in the ceremony when her opening match in the Olympic tennis tournament was pushed back from Saturday to Sunday without an explanation earlier in the day. She was originally scheduled to play 52nd-ranked Zheng Saisai of China in the very first match of the Games on center court Saturday morning. But clearly by lighting the flame as midnight approached, she wouldn’t have had enough rest for an early morning match. Osaka became the first tennis player to light the Olympic cauldron. She’s also one of the few active athletes to be given the honor. Australian sprinter Cathy Freeman lit the cauldron for the 2000 Sydney Games and went on to win gold in the 400 meters. Osaka — along with top-ranked Ash Barty — is a favorite to win the women’s singles title in a tennis tournament that also features Novak Djokovic aiming to become the first man to win a Golden Slam by holding all four Grand Slam trophies and Olympic gold in the same year. Whatever the final results on the court, Osaka has already become part of Olympic history.

Ten more people involved in the Summer Olympics in Japan, including an athlete, have tested Covid-19 positive, the organising committee said Wednesday. Among those who contracted the virus are a foreign athlete, one foreign staff member and eight other people involved in the Olympics. Read: Olympics, pandemic and politics: There's no separating them The new infections have brought the Games-linked Covid-19 cases in Japan to 81 since July 1, while more international athletes are testing positive at home and unable to travel. The virus has also been detected in four athletes and accompanying personnel from training camps located outside Tokyo, the organisers added. Health experts in Japan have warned of the Olympics becoming a "super-spreader" event bringing tens of thousands of athletes, officials and workers during a local state of emergency. However, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday, "The Tokyo Olympics should not be judged by the tally of Covid cases that arise because eliminating risk is impossible."  Read: WHO head says Olympics virus risk inevitable "The mark of success is making sure that any cases are identified, isolated, traced and cared for as quickly as possible and onward transmission is interrupted," Tedros said in a speech to an International Olympic Committee meeting.

Over and over, year after year, the stewards of the Olympics say it: The Games aren’t supposed to be political. But how do you avoid politics when you’re trying to pull off an event of this complexity during a lethal and protracted pandemic?   Consider: — The Japanese medical community largely opposes these Olympics; the government’s main medical adviser, Dr. Shigeru Omi, has said it’s “abnormal” to hold them during a pandemic. — Medical journals The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine have raised questions about the risks, with the former criticizing the World Health Organization for not taking a clear stand and the latter saying the IOC’s decision to proceed “is not informed by the best scientific evidence.” — The second-largest selling newspaper in Japan, the Asahi Shimbun, has called for the Olympics to be canceled. So have other regional newspapers. — There’s the risk of the Olympics spreading variant strains, particularly after two members of the Ugandan delegation were detected with the delta variant. Still, they are going ahead; the opening ceremony is Friday. So how have the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga been able to surmount strong opposition? Read: WHO head says Olympics virus risk inevitable At the core: the “host city contract” that gives the IOC sole authority to cancel. If Japan cancels, it would have to compensate the IOC. And there are billions at stake. Japan has officially spent $15.4 billion but government audits suggest it’s twice that much. Japanese advertising giant Dentsu Inc., a key player in landing the corruption-tainted bid in 2013, has raised more than $3 billion from local sponsors. Estimates suggest a cancellation — highly unlikely at this point, less than 48 hours before the opening — could cost the IOC up to $4 billion in broadcast rights income. Broadcasting and sponsors account for 91% of the IOC income, and American network NBCUniversal provides about 40% of the IOC’s total income. The Associated Press sought perspectives from inside and outside Japan on the politics of putting this on.   ___   KOICHI NAKANO, political scientist, Sophia University: “It’s a bit like a gambler who already has lost too much. Pulling out of it now will only confirm the huge losses made, but carrying on you can still cling to the hope of winning big and taking it all back. (Suga) might as well take the chance and hope for the best by going ahead with it. At least there is some chance that he can claim the games to be a success — just by doing it — and saturating the media with pride and glory might help him turn the negative opinion around.”   ___   MARK CONRAD, lawyer, Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University: “The IOC carries a brand that is powerful. Athletes from around the world coming together to compete in peace is a heart-tugging draw. It takes an entertainment event and infuses it with a certain level of piety and awe. Who is against peace? With this “Olympism” as a goal, it has snagged corporate sponsors willing to pay lots of money. Therefore, the IOC has the leverage to exact contract terms very favorable to it and it certainly has done that in this case. The fact that only the IOC can formally decide to pull the plug on the games — even in the case of unforeseeable health events -- is testament to this.”   ___   HELEN JEFFERSON LENSKYI, sociologist, author, “The Olympic Games: A Critical Approach”:   “The host city contract hands over all the power to the IOC. The Olympic industry has had 120-plus years to win hearts and minds around the globe, with obvious success. In the age of the internet, their PR controls the message and protects the brand 24/7. The IOC is also beyond the reach of any oversight agency, including the governments of host countries. It can violate a country’s human rights protections with immunity, including athletes’ right to access domestic courts of law.”   ___   AKI TONAMI, political scientist, University of Tsukuba:   “Based on what I am hearing, people within the government have been given their instructions to make the Games happen, and that is their singular focus right now — for better or for worse. Their hope is to get through the Games with as few missteps as possible. Politicians may well be aware of the risk they are taking but hope that once the games begin the Japanese public will persevere ‘for the good of Japan’ and forget how we got there.”   ___   JOHN HORNE, sociologist, Waseda University, co-author with Garry Whannel of “Understanding the Olympics”:   “The IOC is an elitist club that garners support from other elites and people — and countries — that aspire to joining the elite. From a sports perspective, the IOC represents the custodian of the exclusive medals that athletes in numerous sports aspire to, acts as the chief promoter of the mythology of the healing power of sport, and the organization that most international sports federations and national Olympic committees are reliant on for funding.”   ___   GILL STEEL, political scientist, Doshisha University:   “Politically, the opposition is so weak, the government can do pretty much anything it wants. Although a disastrous Olympics would damage the LDP’s credibility, the party likely feels safe because a majority of the public doubts the capability of the opposition to govern. The government may be hoping that once the games start, public opinion will turn — at the very least, producing a distraction, and at most, perhaps a rally round the flag effect.”   ___   ROBERT WHITING, author of several books on Japan including the latest, “Tokyo Junkie”:   “You notice how nobody seems to be in charge. You have all these different entities: the Tokyo organizing committee; the Japanese Olympic Committee; the prime minister’s office; the governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike; the Japan Sports Agency; the Foreign Ministry; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Suga is asked in the Diet (Japanese parliament) about canceling the games and says it’s not his responsibility. Nobody wants to lose face.”   Read: Zero risk? Virus cases test Olympic organizers' assurances ___   DAVID LEHENY, political scientist, Waseda University:   “A lot of the opposition is shallow and movable, though of course that’s contingent on the Olympics actually working out. There will be a lot of people (broadcasters, etc.) invested in trying to make it look like a good show, so I think they’ll have the winds at their back if there’s not an appreciable spike in COVID deaths or any heat-related tragedies for the athletes.”   ___   RYU HOMMA, author and former advertising agency executive:   “If it turns out there is a surge in coronavirus patients and it becomes a catastrophe, that’s not the responsibility of the IOC. It’s the Japanese government that will be stuck with the responsibility.”

Two South African soccer players became the first athletes inside the Olympic Village to test positive for COVID-19, and other cases connected to the Tokyo Games were also confirmed Sunday, highlighting the herculean task organizers face to keep the virus contained while the world’s biggest sports event plays out. The positive tests came as some of the 11,000 athletes and thousands more team officials expected from across the globe began arriving, having traveled through a pandemic to get to Tokyo. Read: Tokyo's daily COVID-19 cases top 1000 for 3rd straight day They’ll all now live in close quarters in the Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay over the next three weeks. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said last week there was “zero” risk of athletes passing on the virus to Japanese or other residents of the village. But that bold statement was already being tested. The Olympics, which were postponed for a year because of the pandemic, are set to officially open Friday and run until Aug. 8. The two soccer players and a team video analyst who also tested positive had been moved to “the Tokyo 2020 isolation facility,” the South African Olympic committee said. The rest of the squad members and officials had also been quarantined. Those positive tests further stoked local fears, with the South African team scheduled to play against host nation Japan in its first game on Thursday. Read: 6 athletes to represent Bangladesh in Tokyo Olympics There has already been consistent opposition from the Japanese public to holding the Olympics during the pandemic, with fears that it could become a super-spreader event and cause a spike in infections among Japanese people. Bach and the IOC have insisted it will be safe and have forged ahead against most medical advice. The IOC says it sees the Games as a chance to foster international solidarity during difficult times, but the IOC would also lose billions of dollars in broadcast rights if the Games were to be canceled completely. Also Sunday, Team South Africa confirmed the coach of its rugby sevens team also tested positive at a pre-Olympics training camp in the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima. He was also in isolation there and would miss the entire rugby competition, the team said. And there were other Olympics-related positive tests. Olympic organizers said that another athlete had tested positive, although they were not residing in the Olympic Village. The athlete was not named and only identified as “non-Japanese.” The first International Olympic Committee official was reported as positive. He recorded a positive test on Saturday when arriving at a Tokyo airport. The IOC confirmed the test and identified him as IOC member Ryu Seung-min of South Korea. He was reportedly being held in isolation, too. Former distance runner and world championship bronze medalist Tegla Loroupe, the chief of mission of the IOC’s Refugee Olympic Team, tested positive for COVID-19 before the team was to depart its Doha, Qatar, training base for Tokyo, two people with knowledge of her condition told the AP. The team delayed its arrival in Tokyo while Loroupe is expected to stay behind, according to the two people, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal medical information. Organizers say that 55 people linked to the Olympics in Japan have reported positive tests since July 1, but that figure does not include athletes or others who may have arrived for training camps but are not yet under the “jurisdiction” of the organizing committee. The British Olympic Association said six athletes and two staff in the track and field squad are isolating at the team’s pre-Olympic base in Yokohama after being deemed close contacts of a person who tested positive following their flight to Japan. U.S. tennis player Coco Gauff didn’t travel to Japan after testing positive for the coronavirus. Tokyo reported 1,008 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the 29th straight day that cases were higher than seven days previously. It was also the fifth straight day with more than 1,000 cases. The Olympics will open under a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures. No fans, Japanese or foreign, will be allowed at any of the Olympic sports in Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures. A few outlying venues may allow a small number of local fans, but it has effectively become a TV-only event. About 200 protesters gathered Sunday outside Shinjuku station in central Tokyo, waving signs that read “No Olympics.” It was the latest in a series of small protests against the Games in the last few months. “This is ignoring human rights and our right to life,” protester Karoi Todo told the AP. “Infections are increasing. To do the Olympics is unforgivable.” Japanese and IOC organizers hope stringent testing protocols, where athletes, team officials and others are tested daily, will mitigate the risks posed by the thousands of foreigners arriving at once. Visiting athletes, officials and media will be in a “soft quarantine” situation and restricted to the Olympic venues, the village and designated hotels, and will be kept away from the Japanese general public. The IOC also says more than 80% of the athletes set to compete in Tokyo will be vaccinated against COVID-19. But, despite the assurances, the positive tests five days out from the opening ceremony showed the regulations aren’t — and can’t be — foolproof. The South African team’s chief medical officer said every member of the team had two negative tests before traveling to Japan “as per Tokyo 2020 requirements.” They also tested negative on arrival in Tokyo, Dr. Phatho Zondi said. “Team officials and management have followed all relevant Olympic Playbook rules, protocols and procedures throughout the pre-Games and Games arrival routines,” the South African Olympic committee said. Coach Neil Powell and the entire South Africa rugby squad were held at a quarantine facility after arriving in Japan because of a positive COVID test on their flight, Team South Africa said. They were cleared to leave, only for Powell to test positive a few days later. Powell had been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine in South Africa on May 24, team spokesman JJ Harmse told the AP. South African Olympic and soccer officials didn’t immediately confirm whether the two soccer players and official who tested positive had been vaccinated, although South Africa’s Olympic committee said in May it would offer all its Olympic athletes the J&J vaccine. The Olympics were effectively over before they began for the two soccer players and Powell as they would have to remain in quarantine for 14 days under Japanese regulations. The only way the soccer players might be able to play is if their team made the semifinals.

The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Saturday the first positive case of COVID-19 has been detected in the Tokyo athletes' village with less than a week until the opening ceremony. The organizing committee did not identify the individual but said the infected person is a visitor from abroad involved in organizing the games, and not an athlete. The person did not share sleeping quarters with anyone, it said. Read: Japan's Olympic security balancing act leaves few satisfied Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said the individual was isolated after testing positive and transported to a dedicated medical facility outside of the athletes' village. No specifics about the severity of the person's condition have been disclosed. The news comes as the number of Olympic-related arrivals to Tokyo grows, with the peak expected on Sunday. Muto informed the media of the first positive test taken at a regular screening at the village in the capital's Harumi waterfront district, but that he was unaware of the person's vaccination status. Read: Nobel Laureate Prof Yunus to receive Olympic Laurel According to organizers, a saliva-based test was taken on Thursday and came back positive the following day. The case was confirmed with a positive PCR test at an outpatient facility within the athletes' village. The case is one of 15 new positive results among games participants and workers reported on Saturday, the highest daily count since the committee started compiling figures on July 1. The overall tally does not include athletes at pre-Olympic training camps in Japan. Of the 15 infection cases, seven are contractors, six are Olympic staff members and two are members of the press. Eight traveled from abroad for the games and have been in Japan for fewer than 14 days, while seven are Japan residents. There have been a total of 45 COVID-19 infections announced by organizers since July 1. The village, with 21 residential buildings, 3,600 rooms and 18,000 beds, opened to athletes on Tuesday. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who arrived in Japan on July 8, told Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga that 85 percent of athletes and officials living in the Olympic village would be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. While in Japan, athletes are in principle restricted to the village and their training and competition venues as organizers try to enforce a "bubble" environment. They will also be subject to daily coronavirus screening. Bach, who visited the Olympic village on Thursday morning, was reported as promising there was "zero" risk of athletes transmitting the virus into the Japanese community or to other residents of the village. At a press conference on Saturday, he clarified the reporting over his comments, saying he was referring to zero risk of infection from three specific positive cases. Also on Saturday, Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto told a press conference after the IOC Executive Board meeting at a Tokyo hotel that the IOC has praised Tokyo's preparations for the games. "We are doing everything possible to ensure that there is no COVID-19 outbreak," Hashimoto said. "I believe successfully pushing through to the end (of the games) is the legacy," she said. The Olympics run from July 23 to Aug. 8, and Tokyo's fourth coronavirus state of emergency is scheduled for July 12 to Aug. 22, lifting before the Paralympic Games open on Aug. 24.

Struggling businesses forced to temporarily shut down around Olympics venues. Olympic visitors ordered to install invasive apps and allow GPS tracking. Minders staking out hotels to keep participants from coming into contact with ordinary Japanese or visiting restaurants to sample the sushi. Japan’s massive security apparatus has raised complaints that the nation, during the weeks of the Games, will look more like authoritarian North Korea or China than one of the world’s most powerful, vibrant democracies. Read: 6 athletes to represent Bangladesh in Tokyo Olympics The worry for many here, however, isn’t too much Big Brother. It’s that all the increased precautions won’t be nearly enough to stop the estimated 85,000 athletes, officials, journalists and other workers coming into Japan from introducing fast-spreading coronavirus variants to a largely unvaccinated population already struggling with mounting cases. “It’s all based on the honor system, and it’s causing concern that media people and other participants may go out of their hotels to eat in Ginza,” Takeshi Saiki, an opposition lawmaker, said of what he called Japan’s lax border controls. So far, the majority of Olympic athletes and other participants have been exempted from typical quarantine requirements. There have been regular breakdowns in security as the sheer enormity of trying to police so many visitors becomes clearer — and the opening ceremony looms. The Japanese press is filled with reports of Olympic-related people testing positive for the coronavirus. Photos and social media posts show foreigners linked to the Games breaking mask rules and drinking in public, smoking in airports — even, if the bios are accurate, posting on dating apps. “There are big holes in the bubbles,” said Ayaka Shiomura, another opposition lawmaker, speaking of the so-called “bubbles” that are supposed to separate the Olympics’ participants from the rest of the country. The pandemic has tested democracies around the world as they try to strike a balance between the need to protect basic rights and the national imperative to control a disease that thrives when people gather in large numbers. Few places, however, have faced higher stakes than Tokyo will during July and August — or closer global scrutiny. The government, well aware of repeated domestic surveys that show strong opposition to the Games, argues that its security and monitoring measures are crucial as it tries to pull off an Olympics during a once-in-a-century pandemic. But as the restrictions are tested by increasing numbers of visitors, officials have been blamed for doing too much, and too little. The government and the Games’ organizers “are treating visitors as if they are potential criminals,” Chizuko Ueno, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Tokyo, said on YouTube. Read: Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for July 23-Aug 8 in 2021 There’s also lingering resentment over a widespread sentiment that Japan is facing this balancing act because the International Olympic Committee needs to have the Games happen, regardless of the state of the virus, to get the billions of dollars in media revenue critical to its survival. “The Olympics are held as an IOC business. Not only the Japanese people, but others around the world, were turned off by the Olympics after all of us saw the true nature of the Olympics and the IOC through the pandemic,” mountaineer Ken Noguchi told the online edition of the Nikkan Gendai newspaper. Senior sports editors at major international media companies, meanwhile, have asked organizers to “reconsider some measures that go beyond what is necessary to keep participants and residents safe,” saying they “show a disregard for the personal privacy and technological security of our colleagues.” Japan has fared better during the pandemic than many nations, but the Olympians will be arriving only a few months after a coronavirus spike had some Japanese hospitals nearing collapse as ICUs filled with the sick. While the surge has tempered, cases are rising enough for the declaration of yet another state of emergency in Tokyo. One of the highest-profile security problems came last month when a Ugandan team member arriving in Japan tested positive for what turned out to be the more contagious delta variant. He was quarantined at the airport, but the rest of the nine-person team was allowed to travel more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) on a chartered bus to their pre-Olympics camp, where a second Ugandan tested positive, forcing the team and seven city officials and drivers who had close contact with them to self-isolate. On Friday, a Uganda team member went missing, raising more questions about the oversight of Olympic participants. So what are the restrictions that Olympic-linked visitors face? For the first 14 days in Japan, Olympic visitors outside the athletes’ village are banned from using public transportation and from going to bars, tourist spots and most restaurants. They cannot even take a walk, or visit anywhere, in fact, that’s not specifically mentioned in activity plans submitted in advance. There are some exceptions authorized by organizers: specifically designated convenience stores, takeaway places and, in rare cases, some restaurants that have private rooms. Athletes, tested daily for the coronavirus, will be isolated in the athletes’ village and are expected to stay there, or in similarly locked-down bubbles at venues or training sites. Those who break the rules could be sent home or receive fines and lose the right to participate in the Games. Everyone associated with the Olympics will be asked to install two apps when entering Japan. One is an immigration and health reporting app, and the other is a contact tracing app that uses Bluetooth. They will also have to consent to allowing organizers to use GPS to monitor their movements and contacts through their smartphones if there’s an infection or violation of rules. “We are not going to monitor the behavior at all times,” Organizing Committee CEO Toshiro Muto said. “The thing is, though, if there should be issues pertaining to their activity then, since the GPS function will be on, we’ll be able to verify their activities.” Japan also plans to station human monitors at venues and hotels, though it’s not yet clear how many. “We will control every entry and exit. We will have a system that will not allow anyone to go outside freely,” Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa said. Other nations, both democratic and autocratic, have also tried to control and monitor behavior and businesses during the pandemic. In the United States, for instance, NFL teams tracked their athletes in the team facilities. South Korean health authorities have aggressively used smartphone GPS data, credit-card transaction records and surveillance videos to find and isolate potential virus carriers. Tracking apps are used to monitor thousands of individuals quarantined at home. In China, mask mandates, lockdowns confining millions to their homes and case tracing on a nationwide scale have faced little or no opposition. North Korea has shut its borders even tighter, skipped the Olympics and canceled or seriously curtailed access for foreign diplomats, aid workers and outside journalists. While the security restrictions in Japan will be a hassle for visitors, they could also hit locals hard. Hiroshi Kato, a fencing instructor, said he worries that he’ll lose even more business than he did during the pandemic because he’s been ordered to move from the building where he works across from the main Olympics stadium from July 1 to Sep. 19, for unspecified security reasons. “I feel helpless,” he said in an interview. “To safely hold the Games, some restrictions are understandable … but (the organizers) knew this for a long time and perhaps could have provided some assistance for us.”

The Tokyo metropolitan government reported 1,271 new daily COVID-19 cases on Friday, topping 1,000 for the third straight day just a week before the Tokyo Olympics start. The figure in the capital, which is currently under a fourth COVID-19 state of emergency amid a resurgence of infections, hit 1,308 on Thursday, its highest level since late January. Read: 6 athletes to represent Bangladesh in Tokyo Olympics The capital's latest number topped the figure posted in the week earlier for the 27th straight day, raising its seven-day rolling average of infections per day to 946.3, up 37.8 percent from the previous week. Health experts advising the metropolitan government have warned the moving average could jump to 2,406 by Aug. 11, shortly after the Olympics end on Aug. 8, topping the third wave that swept across Tokyo in the winter. Read: Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for July 23-Aug 8 in 2021 Public concerns remain high that the Olympics could become a superspreader event with the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, first found in India.