I am afraid that my report is not much of a report. The entire trip was a waste of your money, and my time. It did have one result, I will watch the 2020 Games on the television from the comfort of my home, the more I learnt, the less appealing the idea of attending became.
It was not without trying. In the run up to the Press Briefing, both Pamela Young and I tried hard to pin down some sort of access to the equestrian facilities since we were both aware that this sort of specialist information was likely to be lost in the deluge of PR flack. We failed.
8 is the Main Equestrian Centre (dressage, showjumping)
20 is the cross country course
When I arrived, I immediately contacted the Venues Manager and was introduced to the equestrian expert, whose knowledge of the facility and the arrangements was negligible. She did try to get permission for someone to take me to the main equestrian stadium, but permission was refused. It was a construction site, I was told, no access allowed. I asked to at least get a feel of the surroundings. No again.
My equestrian expert did tell me that the nearest subway station to the Main Stadium (and this is the main means of transport for the Games) was just a 25 minute walk from the venue. Those of you who pack 30 kgs plus of camera equipment would be well advised to take out gym membership immediately.
And this is what it should look like when it is complete…
I did raise the question of press with specialist accreditation being allowed to stay at the hotels closest to the venue. It seems you book your accommodation, pay your deposit, and then ask, and hope your request is granted, for one of the hotels near the venue. My expert told me that there were a number of colleges near the equestrian venue, and I did suggest that as in the case of the Uni College in Greenwich, this would be a perfect solution, again, they are great at saying no – nicely.
These are the hotels in relation to the equestrian venues – I asked the press office to name the cluster of six closest to the Equestrian Park, but they didn’t reply…
The good news is that there will be free wi-fi and cable for the photographers, everywhere.
Everything revolves around the main press centre at the Tokyo Big Sight, a hideous massive conference centre, and plans are in place for press there to be fed info from the various venues instantly, so you don’t ever have to leave the MPC (see my appendix). If you do actually want to attend the events you are reporting on, you can travel to the MPC and get on a bus to your venue… yeah we know about buses at Games.
Okay, Rio might have been a bit of a non-event, but it was dead easy. Wake up, go to canteen, get on bus, cover the day, get on bus, go to canteen, go to bed. Repeat sixteen times.
This one is going to be tough, and the weather at this time of the year is hot and humid. There was a typhoon happening during my visit, centred on Osaka, the comforting note in my hotel room said, do not worry it the building seems to be moving, it is just the typhoon. Walking in the wind was challenging. It also tended to rain. A friend who works with some of the Tokyo rugby teams tells me at that time of the year, they all move out of Tokyo because it is too hot to train or play.
For those of you alarmed at Tokyo’s reputation as a city of unreformed nicotine addicts, relax. The health police are well in control, okay in the little bars of Shinbashi patrons smoke and dine simultaneously, but in the rest of Tokyo – even in great empty spaces next to the harbour – those seeking a gentle puff must find the little space reserved for smokers. In passing I would note that this report would be even flimsier, but for the help of the guy I met in the smoking room during a break in the briefing, he was really the only one who put himself out to help.
While I didn’t get to see the main equestrian stadium, I did climb a small hill and gazed out upon the cross-country course. It’s not a bad bit of land, and if someone had started work on it ten years ago, it might have been okay on the day. But as yet the plans for the course are not finalised, yet it is supposed to be ready for next year’s trial event.
Photographers were told not to photograph this image, since the plan for the cross country course has not been finalised. I am helping hold the graphic since it was in danger of being blown away in the wind…
Photo by Ashoka Peiris (CSNA-Sri Lanka)
This is where the course is to be built…
The major problem for the competitors is that it is so far from where they do their dressage and showjumping. For press and spectators, the problem is actually getting there, officials say they are ‘working on’ how that is to happen. Those of you who remember the farce at Den Hague WEG, will doubtless shudder at the prospect of another remote and difficult to get to cross-country course.
There is also a problem in that the Venue Press Centre is a ten-minute walk away from the finish line and the mixed zone. There will be an uploading point for photographers in the mixed zone area, but no facilities for you to sit and use your computer and upload your story as it happens. I did then suggest that the riders could be golf buggyied to the VPC while the adrenalin was still flowing and before the worst of Press Conference Speak had set in, so we could get our interviews while getting the overall picture on the monitors and filing copy. They kept saying they wanted our feed-back, but showed little signs of being interested when you attempted to give them some.
Sorry my friends, but I did try…
Appendix:
I have seen the future, and it’s not pretty.
When you have the President of the largest and most powerful nation on earth who rules by twitter, then it is fairly apparent that we have a problem. Everything is being dumbed down, reduced to the lowest common denominator, instead of analysis we have ‘likes’, and revealingly, the overwhelming majority of like-ees don’t actually hit the link and take the trouble to read what they are liking. The superficial becomes more superficial, everything exists in real time, reflection is something for silly old farts approaching their dotage, everything is in the now, this instant…
There was always a tendency to dumb down media coverage of equestrian sport. World Cup supremo, Max Ammann came up with a tempting deal, he provided the media with nicely equipped press rooms, complete with well stocked fridges and they got their quotes at tightly controlled press conferences, rather than running around out the back to get their stories, and possibly discovering something embarrassing. The process was refined with the ‘smart quotes’, you didn’t need to even write down what was being said at the conference, smiley girls would deliver appropriately cheery platitudes to your desk, leaving more time to enjoy the smoked salmon and the Heineken.
Max tried to push it one step further, suggesting the World Cup committee could distribute free photos after each World Cup round. Luckily at that time (mid-80’s) there were still a good number of serious, informed equestrian journalists on the scene. Led by Peter Churchill, at a meeting of the International Alliance of Equestrian Journalists (the organization co-founded by Max) the members overwhelmingly condemned the idea on the grounds that it was to decimate the ranks of equestrian photographers, and Max backed away…
Nowadays, the FEI, Longines, Rolex and a host of individual events circulate copyright free photos and the equestrian photographer, like the equestrian journalist, is a species on the path to extinction.
Lucia Montenarella carved a career through the ranks of equestrian media, starting as press officer at the WEG in Rome in 1998. Lucia has been in charge of the press at several Games, and has now moved on to a far more exalted position, editor-in-chief of the Olympic Information Service for the IOC.
Poor old Max was just cutting the snappers out of the deal, Lucia’s plan has the capacity to get rid of that whole messy media crew, and make sure that what goes out to the wider world is always on message.
She outlined the plan proudly at the International Press Briefing in Tokyo in the first week of September. Journalists would not have to leave the Main Press Centre to cover ALL the events of the Games, or indeed ANY events at the Games. The OIS team of journalists, who have privileged first shot at interviewing athletes after their events, and exclusive access to training and warm-up areas, will provide a total feed, including video footage of interviews and press conferences, with simultaneous translation into all the major languages. This will be done in English by ‘experienced professionals’ – I’m not sure where she is going to get her crew of English speaking experienced professionals with equestrian expertise unless she is planning on raiding a few old peoples’ facilities…
But really that is not what this sort of coverage is all about, it will be Emojis in words. Equestrian principles that should govern all interaction with the horse including competition, lighten up! Make ’em laugh, make ’em cry, it will all be ancient history in five minutes.
For the Para section of the Tokyo Games, the plot becomes thicker. The OIS will have its own photographic team supplying copyright free pix to who-ever wants them. How long before the same service is offered for the rest of the events? What if sometime in the next two years, someone suggests, hey we don’t want to get into a fight with the big Sports Pix agencies, but they are only interested in the glamour sports, wouldn’t it be a good idea for us to up the profile of some of the normally ignored minor sports, and provide copyright free pix from our team – for little sports like…
This then raises the question of why should the press even go through the hassle of going to the Olympic City? If you are getting your information on line, you can do the job just as well sitting comfortably at home, cheaper, and best of all for the IOC and the OC, no nosy press with specialist knowledge ferretting around behind the scenes finding stories that the organizers would rather stay unfound.
At the International Press Briefing, the equestrian sports were obviously way down everyone’s agenda, even though they present some fairly interesting problems.
On the official literature, the Main Equestrian Centre, where the dressage, showjumping and eventing dressage will be held, is an existing facility and the equestrian hub of Tokyo. It is not on our bus tour of venues, and when I ask if I can visit, I am told the Centre is under construction and the public are forbidden to enter the construction site. However I am told that the cross country course, on a patch of industrial wasteland in the middle of the harbour, on the other side of the city from the Main Equestrian Centre, will be visible from a distance on our Bus Tour, though we are not to step foot on it.
Back in April 2016, when he was appointed the designer for the courses at the WEG in Bromont, and the Games in Tokyo, Derek di Grazia, in a masterpiece of under-statement observed: “At this point both courses are in the early stages of design. However, the nature of the sites will allow for each course to have its own character. While both of these competitions will take place on sites that are quite different from each other I will strive to offer courses that will provide both the competitors and the spectators a good day of eventing at the very highest level.”
Well the Bromont course never happened, and the Tokyo course will be ‘a challenge’, to throw out a challenge to di Grazia in the under-statements’ stakes. A challenge for the riders to get their horses there from the Main Centre, and a challenge for the public and the press to actually make it to the venue. The land is not unpleasant with some undulations and three water opportunities, it might have been a splendid venue if they had started holding events there ten years ago. We were told we could not take photos of the graphic of the cross country course, because the course had not yet been decided. So the course is still up in the air, no horse has ever set foot on the ground, and we are a year away from the test event, two years from the real thing. Okay, London featured a newly made course in Greenwich, but there the course designer and the organizers had the world’s most experienced band of event volunteers to call on, and fence builders with years of experience. Plus it was right next to the main stadium where the dressage and showjumping phases were held.
Now I am no great fan of eventing as a life and death challenge, and would be quite happy to see the Games on a CIC format, but it would seem a chance that the circumstances will force the builder to produce a track that is not even a decent CIC test, but not to worry, only the riders who go well will be interviewed by the OIC team, and they have been well trained in the art of media-speak, ‘It looked easy but that is not how it rode, a real Olympic test, thank you to the sponsors, my family and the organizers for a great Games…’ gush they on, instantly beamed around the globe by OIC.
Welcome to the banal new world…