After two hours of waiting to be only let out of the plane, we feared that the rumors were true and that we would still need double or even triple the time to get out of Narita airport. , in Tokyo. We were wrong.
As far as we can tell from the large windows of the terminal, it was sunny and already very hot in the Japanese capital. But after a trip that had started about twenty hours earlier, my eyes mostly sought to pierce the dim light of the long corridor in front of me in order to estimate the number of athletes, officials and other journalists who preceded me in the long line of chairs where everyone filled out yet another form under the benevolent gaze of masked volunteers dressed in protective clothing.
My heart swayed between, on the one hand, the joy of being in Japan for the first time and at the Olympics, and, on the other, the annoyance of having to undergo new health formalities afterwards. weeks, if not months, of paperwork, training sessions, computer bugs and unclear communications. I knew the tremendous efforts the Japanese had put in to hold the party despite the pandemic and opposition from a large majority of the population, but there were times when I laughed inwardly when someone brought up the proverbial meaning of Japanese organization and efficiency.
This gloomy mood also betrayed a concern. Despite long and many efforts, the list of competition venues I wanted to go to during my first 14 days in Japan had still not been authorized when I left Montreal, and this could be grounds for immediate dismissal. in Canada. As I was not the only one in this situation, we started sending each other the copy of a temporary acceptance letter that another Canadian had received, but I doubted that the trick was to tell me. ‘a great help.
Also, it wasn’t much of a surprise when a caring volunteer came to tell me there was a problem with my file and ask me to follow her. Seeing us back up the long line, I thought for a moment that bad luck was about to turn into a blessing. Someone was going to look into my particular case, realize that I had followed all the procedures to the letter and finally allow me to get out of here faster than if I had had to wait my turn like the others. . I wasn’t quite right. We looked into my case and we concluded that I was not going to be sent home, but only after 12 hours of waiting and a suspicion of anxiety at the airport.
Games in the bubble
But it was all obviously worth it. Yes, the drug tests, constant mask wearing, administrative complications and computer difficulties continued to be a part of my daily life, but the rest of the operations lived up to the reputation of the Japanese for efficiency. , not to mention their great kindness.
And then, I was in Japan to cover the Olympics. In fact, I was going to be more under the sanitary glass bell of the Games than actually in Japan, at least for my first two weeks there, and apart from a 15-minute outing right allocated daily for us to run at. a small local grocery store will find food there.
The working day started very early and ended very late in order to reconcile two time zones at the opposite ends. Despite this, each time there were heartbreaking choices to be made from the dizzying buffet of sporting competitions offered every day.
There were the unmissable events, such as the opening ceremony, the 100-meter final, the Canadian women’s swimming team or the Quebecers in judo and diving. There was everything else too, which offered a thousand and one magical moments that were often unexpected and featured relatively anonymous athletes in a world that usually only has only the same handful of professional sports.
The same existential question was asked each time. How – with a team of one person, as passionate and well-intentioned as it is, but not having the sports encyclopedic knowledge of a Paul Houde and above all accustomed to economic news – bring something interesting and original to the coverage of an event followed in real time and in detail by hundreds of media, on all platforms, around the world?
So it’s very tired, but my head and heart filled with sporting achievements, human stories and personal encounters that I packed my bags on the last morning, not without promising myself to go to Japan one day … nor without spending my last hours fixing another little computer problem that was preventing me from receiving the results of the screening test necessary to return to Canada safely.