Kolkata : Torrential rains battered the host city Aichi-Nagoya last week, forcing evacuations, disrupting train services and even prompting the rescheduling of some Asian Games events. As the city braces for the possibility of Typhoon Dujuan hitting the Aichi-Nagoya coast on Monday next, another storm has been brewing around the organising committee. Sustainability and cost-cutting may have been at the heart of the decision to do away with a traditional Games village, but the arrangement has instead triggered chaos and confusion for hundreds of athletes and officials.
For many of the 17,000 athletes and officials arriving in the city, the wait at the airport to get their credentials validated and transport arranged has been at least three hours, with some stranded for as long as 14 hours. Already weary from their journey, they were left waiting at the airport, with food and basic arrangements becoming an issue.
The problems, which began earlier in the week, continued on Thursday, two days before the Games officially open on Saturday. The confusion did not end at the airport. Athletes arriving at their accommodation were faced with uncertainty over room allocation, with even the hosts caught up in the mess. A section of the Japanese contingent had to seek alternative arrangements after men and women were allotted shared rooms.
Indian Olympic Association officials too faced room-allocation issues and were left without accommodation before alternative arrangements were eventually made. Space has emerged as another concern. While compact accommodation is hardly unfamiliar in Japan, the cramped quarters have taken several contingents by surprise. The Costa Serena cruise ship, docked at Kinjo Pier, is housing around 4,000 athletes.
Japan’s deputy chef de mission Hisashi Mizutori acknowledged the problems at a press conference on Thursday. “Since the cruise ship village opened, athletes have been arriving and going through the entry procedures. However, the process took a significant amount of time due to issues with activation of their credentials,” he said.
The container-style huts, built with an eye on future use as disaster evacuation facilities, have also come under scrutiny. “There is no space to store luggage and we are not here for few days but three weeks, so it’s a challenge in the containers. The ones built for acclimatisation back home by Sports Authority of India were much bigger,” rued an IOA official, an Asian Games veteran. Food has been another source of discontent. While some contingents found fare difficult to adapt, others complained that quantities were inadequate and were forced to eat outside.
Logistical problems continued to hit contingents on Thursday. With venues spread across the region and accommodation located some distance away, athletes have been spending hours on the road and, in some cases, missing scheduled training slots. The Indian shooting team was among those affected. The journey from their accommodation to the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery was expected to take around 75 minutes. Instead, the team took more than two hours to reach the venue after waiting nearly three hours for transport to arrive.
By then, the Indians had missed their allotted practice slot and had to wait for other teams to finish before getting their turn.
Rooms meant for two are being shared by three, complained some Indian athletes lodged at the much-criticised Costa Serena cruise ship for the Asian Games as even the host nation’s competitors looked for alternate accommodation amid the organisational chaos that has rocked the build-up to the mega-event in Nagoya.
Barely two days before the opening ceremony, local media reports suggested that some Japanese athletes are looking for alternative arrangements after cases of male and female players being allocated shared rooms emerged.
“There have been cases where coaches, team officials, and athletes have been assigned to the same room. There are also situations where room assignments were made purely based on the numbers, such as assigning five twin rooms for a group of five men and five women,” Japan’s deputy chef de mission Hisashi Mizutori told the media on Thursday.
“While the numbers match on paper, practically it creates challenging situations such as men and women being assigned together, coaches being assigned with athletes, or trainers who need to accommodate a lot of medical equipment being assigned together,” he was quoted as saying by ‘Japan Times’.
Indian athletes from rowing, wushu and table tennis have already checked in at the Italian cruise ship which is currently at the centre of media attention. The ship is almost 300m long and has 1,500 cabins.
According to one Indian contingent member, three athletes are sharing one room meant for two, and the cramped space is creating inconvenience, though they are not formally complaining.
“In some rooms which are meant for only two athletes, three players are staying. The rooms are already small and one additional athlete makes it even more inconvenient. The athletes want to give their best in such a mega event but they are facing this,” a member of the Indian contingent told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
“But we are not complaining, we are adjusting to the situation. Food-wise, though, there are no issues.”
It is also learnt that some Indian officials have been asked to make their own arrangements. Two members of the rowing team support staff are staying outside as they could not be accommodated at the cruise ship, it is learnt.
Some of the Indian athletes, particularly rowers, were also made to wait for more than 12 hours on Wednesday, before they finally got their rooms at the cruise ship just before midnight.
“We reached the cruise ship registration area around 9am (on Wednesday), then we waited and waited and finally entered our rooms almost at midnight,” one of the Indian athletes said.
The Indian contingent’s Chef de Mission Sahdev Yadav told PTI that there was “mismanagement” on part of the organisers and the Indian Olympic Association is trying to sort out the issues.
“There has been a bit of mismanagement from them (organisers) but we are sorting out the issue. We are working on that,” he said.
Thailand team athletes also reportedly slept on the floor at the welcome centre of the cruise ship on Wednesday before managing to check in.
In most of the multi-sport events, basic daily training facilities are available at the Athletes Village or nearby areas.
But in a bid to cut cost, the Aichi-Nagoya Games organisers have done away with a designated Athletes Village.
The rowers have to travel to Nagaragawa International Regatta Course which is around 30km from the cruise ship for training. Ditto for table tennis players, who are also forced to travel for 30km to maintain their training schedule.
“The rowers have to travel 30km for training and it takes more than one hour,” an official said.
The wushu players also have to travel by bus for around 30 minutes to train at the Aichi Prefecture Martial Arts Hall which is more than 10km from the cruise ship.
Approximately 200 container-style wooden huts are accommodating around 2,000 athletes from various countries. They are mainly meant for athletes from football, basketball, baseball, softball, jiu-jitsu and kurash.
Out of these sports, Indians will compete only in kurash which begins on September 27.
“Kurash team will stay there (container villas). They will reach here around September 24,” Deputy Chef de Mission Alaknanda Ashok told PTI.
South Korean officials had earlier criticised the container hut rooms and described them as cramped.
Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games organising committee president Hideaki Omura, however, said that the temporary accommodation could serve as a model for hosting financially sustainable sporting events.
Japan’s deputy chef de mission Hisashi Mizutori told a news conference on Thursday that even the home contingent faced accommodation and other problems.
“The process took a significant amount of time, and due to issues with activation of their credentials, we have received reports that some athletes were left waiting for several hours,” Mizutori said, according to the local media.
He said the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) had secured hotel rooms in the city as a backup as it anticipated accommodation “challenges”.
Away from the chaos, Nagoya is preparing to welcome the Asian Games back to Japan after a 32-year gap. The industrial and automotive hub is decked out in Games posters and buntings, with trains, subways and streets carrying the colours of the event.
Amid the organisational troubles, locals have stepped up. Impromptu volunteers are helping athletes and visitors to navigate the sprawling venues, decipher an unfamiliar language and even find food.
