Photo/Illutration International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach speaks during the Closing Ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics on Feb. 20 in Beijing. (AP Photo)

At the end of last month, a new statue was unveiled in a park in Beijing. It is a bust of Thomas Bach, the well-known president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Joining a statue of modern Olympic Games founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin, Bach’s likeness immortalizes the IOC chief as a “great figure.”

The Winter Olympics wrapped up on Feb. 20. Highlights of Beijing 2022, along with many moving stories about the competition and performances of the top athletes, include a pompous banquet held to entertain Bach and other VIPs.

A spectacularly huge dinner table was decorated with a dazzlingly colorful diorama depicting flowers in full bloom and a snowfield. The sight inspired me to imagine how sumptuous the dinner was.

It also reminded me of what happened in Ginza the day after the Closing Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics last summer. Images of Bach, lightly clad, strolling happily in the shopping district went viral on social media.

At that time, the nation was under a COVID-19 state of emergency, and we tried to stay at home as much as possible. Bach even accidentally called Japanese people "Chinese" during his stay in Tokyo, saying, “most importantly also for the Chinese people... Japanese people.”

As he kept pushing ahead with the decision to hold the Summer Games, even though a surge in COVID-19 cases was threatening to overwhelm Japan’s health care system, then Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga had to express his frustration by saying, “I’m not the person in charge of holding the event.”

In Beijing, again, Bach praised himself for holding a great Olympics despite the pandemic.

An aerial photo of an Olympic venue in Beijing’s suburbs also offered much food for thought. It showed odd, white belts of snow on the black surface of a mountain--courses for Alpine skiing and bobsled events.

Artificial snow was used as there had been no substantial snowfall in the area. The picture raised questions about the sustainability of the Olympics itself.

There are calls for holding the Olympics, both the Summer and Winter Games, only in Greece. It does not have to be a quadrennial event nor a competition among athletes representing their nations.

How about putting a certain United Nations agency in charge of organizing such Olympics? That would at least save the trouble of creating and erecting a statue.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 20

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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