Tokyo 2020 Review: Introduction
2020 Olympic Games, 23-30 July 2021
Sea Forest Waterway, Tokyo, Japan
Words: Rachel Quarrell / Photography: Steve McArthur
It was the Olympics which nearly didn't happen. We'd had 18 months of coronavirus, ergs in living rooms, erased training camps, and a phoney war of summer 2021 regattas from which half the rowing world was absent. PCR tests, quarantine, and hysterical pronunciations from the Tokyo Mayor that his city should be allowed to cancel the Games. It was a mission just to get to Japan and the journey had already cost athletes and coaches the closeness of family, friends and normal life, an extra strain on top of the usual expectation to perform at their very best on the biggest of stages. But somehow, painstakingly, the plans came together and suddenly the 2020 Olympics were about to start. The cream of the rowing world met at the Sea Forest Waterway, a dammed seawater channel between two man-made islands Uminomori and Reiwajima. As the aeroplanes landing at Haneda Airport roared and banked overhead, the crews lined up beside the Chubo-Ohashi Bridge, umpires flourished flags, drones and TV launches started to film. Despite a bit of Olympian weather-induced delay which snipped two days out of the programme, it all worked and the crews got to the finals days in good order. Back to normality. Time to race.