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The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be held in July and August. As these are the hottest months in Tokyo, the risk of heat stress to athletes and spectators in outdoor sporting events is a serious concern. This study focuses on the marathon races, which are held outside for a prolonged time, and evaluates the potential heat stress of marathon runners using the COMFA (COMfort FormulA) Human Heat Balance (HBB) Model. The study applies a four-step procedure: (a) measure the thermal environment along the marathon course; (b) estimate heat stress on runners by applying COMFA; (c) identify locations where runners may be exposed to extreme heat stress; and (d) discuss measures to mitigate the heat stress on runners. On clear sunny days, the entire course is rated as ‘dangerous’ or ‘extremely dangerous’, and within the latter half of the course, there is a 10-km portion where values continuously exceed the extremely dangerous level. Findings illustrate which stretches have the highest need for mitigation measures, such as starting the race one hour earlier, allowing runners to run in the shade of buildings or making use of urban greenery including expanding the tree canopy.

The slogans of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were “symbol of resilience from the Great East Japan Earthquake” and “Compact Olympics”. The Olympics were also expected to demonstrate “gender equality” and to enhance sustainability in modern society. However, in practice, the cost of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 was far greater than estimated. The slogan was changed to “symbol of overcoming COVID-19” although in reality, infection spread dramatically during the games. Overall, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics did not turn out as expected or meet the expectations of the populace. Using individual-level data, we tested how and to what extent Japanese proponents of a sustainable society supported the compact Olympics announced in 2016. The key findings are: (1) most people support policies for environmental protection, gender equality, and disaster prevention and (2) they would have wished to reduce public expenditure for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Further examination with a questionnaire yielded similar results for the male but not for the female sample.

There exist two types of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approaches to the Olympic Games: conventional and fixed-sum outputs (FSO). The approach proposed in this paper belongs to the latter category as it takes into account the total number de medals of each type awarded. Imposing these constraints requires a centralized DEA perspective that projects all the countries simultaneously. In this paper, a multiobjective FSO approach is proposed, and the Weighted Tchebychef solution method is employed. This approach aims to set all output targets as close as possible to their ideal values. In order to choose between the alternative optima, a secondary goal has been considered that minimizes the sum of absolute changes in the number of medals, which also renders the computed targets to be as close to the observed values as possible. These targets represent the output levels that could be expected if all countries performed at their best level. For certain countries, the targets are higher than the actual number of medals won while, for other countries, these targets may be lower. The proposed approach has been applied to the results of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and compared with both FSO and non-FSO DEA methods.

Sustainability in mega events has garnered increasing attention due to the interplay between environmental, social, and economic factors. However, analyses of the evolving of sustainability reporting in mega events, particularly in identifying key areas of focus, persistent gaps, and the influence of global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are lacking. Herein, we present a systematic review of sustainability-related documents from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and EXPO 2020 Dubai, structured according to the Global Reporting Initiative framework, incorporating the Sustainable Development Goals. Text mining and correspondence analysis revealed a noticeable shift in the attention toward sustainability before and after the events. The focus shifted from socioeconomic issues to health and ethical concerns, primarily driven by the pandemic. Although academic documents reflect these concerns, official documents exhibit modest changes. Furthermore, underrepresented sustainability indicators were identified, highlighting the scope for further research and adopting a comprehensive approach to sustainability in mega events.

This study aimed to examine the impact of a major sporting event, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, on abnormal returns of Japanese sponsors and Taiwanese Olympic-related stock prices during three different periods, including the hosting announcement, the postponement in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the holding as scheduled. Using the event study approach, secondary data were collected to investigate the fluctuation of abnormal returns of official Japanese sponsors and Taiwanese Olympic-related stocks. The empirical evidence showed that Olympics-related news disclosures significantly affected the abnormal returns of official sponsors’ stock prices during both the periods of the hosting announcement and the postponement announcement but not during the period of holding as scheduled. This study also verified that the postponement announcement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and its holding as scheduled would generate positive and negative spillover effects on the stock market of a non-host country.

Publicly funded sport events are partially justified based on positive social impacts. Past research generally measured social impact for a generic and global “other” with claims such as “Events create new friendships in the community”. These other-referenced (OR) social impacts are generally higher pre-event than post-event and are inflated for both methodological and theoretical reasons. In the pre-event period of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we empirically tested OR items compared to self-referenced (SR) items, such as “Because of the event, I create new friends in the community” and allowed projection bias to vary between scales. Results of the experiment between an OR-Social Impact Scale (OR-SIS) and a similar SR-SIS confirmed OR-measures to be significantly higher than SR-measures. While artificially inflated OR scores may be useful for event organizers and politicians to gain support for hosting, estimates based on circumscribed self (SR) are a methodologically appropriate measurement of social impact.

Background Technique and tactics are key elements in assessing table tennis performance and have been widely studied. However, most existing methods classify shots solely by sequence or shot number, overlooking the tactical attributes and their impact on rally outcomes. The First Offensive Shot (FOS) model attempted to address this issue but remained too coarse-grained. To overcome these limitations, this study introduces the Enhanced FOS model (EFOS), which integrates shot type and shot number into a more refined state-transition framework. This novel approach provides a more detailed representation of rally dynamics, enabling a deeper analysis of rally progression. Methods The EFOS model divides a rally into three phases: the pre-offensive phase (POP), the initial-offensive phase (IOP), and the final-offensive phase (FOP). Each phase is further categorised based on shot type and shot number. Transition probabilities between states were computed. A comprehensive analysis was conducted on 105 men’s and women’s singles matches from the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, with gender, ranking, and match results as independent variables. Results The IOP accounts for the highest usage (70.6%) among the three phases, with FOS and the following shot–FOS + 1–rank second. Male players tend to use defensive techniques to return shots and attack later, whereas female players prefer to attack defensive shots directly. High-ranked players (≤ 40) demonstrated superior transition efficiency and lower error rates, particularly in the IOP, while winners consistently exhibited higher transition rates and fewer errors across all phases. Conclusions Firstly, the initial-offensive phase emerges as pivotal, with the first offensive shot and the subsequent shot significantly influencing rally outcomes. Secondly, attacking defensive shots have proven to be more effective than attacking serves. Thirdly, male players outperform female players in both initial and subsequent attack. These findings offer practical insights for players and coaches, suggesting that training should emphasise the initial-offensive phase and focus on reducing errors during transitions, particularly for low-ranked players. Additionally, gender-specific training strategies may be developed to address the observed performance differences.

We present an empirical research note analyzing the potential spillover effects of a mega-sport event on the public's attitude toward hosting another future event, specifically examining the perceived impact and trust of Tokyo 2020 on Sapporo 2030 bid that was actually planned until October 2023. An online questionnaire survey was conducted approximately 3 months after the conclusion of Tokyo 2020, with 2,720 randomly selected respondents aged between 16 and 69 from across Japan. The analysis revealed that the perceived impact of Tokyo 2020 and trust in the event authorities significantly influence attitudes toward Sapporo 2030 bid. This result underscores the importance for event practitioners to recognize that the perceived impact of an event and trust in its authorities have temporal externalities.

PurposeThis paper aims to understand how the sustainability theme has been incorporated into the new Olympic planning guidelines based on analysing the case of Tokyo (2020), which was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachFor this, field research using the case study method was carried out that involved 21 in-depth interviews with experts from different entities affected by the event.FindingsAs a result, it was possible to identify that some characteristics already presented in the Tokyo project came to break away from the gigantism observed in the past Olympic editions in an attempt to demonstrate alignment with the new principles brought by the IOC (2020) and 2020 + 5 Agenda that had as one of its main objectives to simplify the Olympics, making the event more sustainable and accessible for future host societies.Originality/valueAt the end, some trends for the future of the Olympic Games are also presented in order to guide future studies in the area, as well as help the future host cities and their companies in planning their investments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted sporting activities across the world. However, practical training strategies for athletes to reduce the risk of infection during the pandemic have not been definitively studied. The purpose of this report was to provide an overview of the challenges we encountered during the reboot of high-performance sporting activities of the Japanese national handball team during the 3rd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo, Japan. Twenty-nine Japanese national women’s handball players and 24 staff participated in the study. To initiate the reboot of their first training camp after COVID-19 stay-home social policy, we conducted: web-based health-monitoring, SARS-CoV-2 screening with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, real-time automated quantitative monitoring of social distancing on court using a moving image-based artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, physical intensity evaluation with wearable heart rate (HR) and acceleration sensors, and a self-reported online questionnaire. The training camp was conducted successfully with no COVID-19 infections. The web-based health monitoring and the frequent PCR testing with short turnaround times contributed remarkably to early detection of athletes’ health problems and to risk screening. During handball, AI-based on-court social-distance monitoring revealed key time-dependent spatial metrics to define player-to-player proximity. This information facilitated appropriate on- and off-game distancing behavior for teammates. Athletes regularly achieved around 80% of maximum HR during training, indicating anticipated improvements in achieving their physical intensities. Self-reported questionnaires related to the COVID management in the training camp revealed a sense of security among the athletes that allowed them to focus singularly on their training. The challenges discussed herein provided us considerable knowledge about creating and managing a safe environment for high-performing athletes in the COVID-19 pandemic via the Japan Sports–Cyber Physical System (JS–CPS) of the Sports Research Innovation Project (SRIP, Japan Sports Agency, Tokyo, Japan). This report is envisioned to provide informed decisions to coaches, trainers, policymakers from the sports federations in creating targeted, infection-free, sporting and training environments.