Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics opened the athletes’ village to the media on Sunday, showing off apartments and a timber-laced shopping plaza where 11,000 athletes would stay and mingle during the sporting extravaganza.
Everyday testing
Athletes will be shuttled in and out of the village and be tested for the coronavirus every day. Olympic rules ban singing and chanting during events and require athletes to wear masks at all times except when outdoors, sleeping or eating.
The shopping area features an automatic teller machine, dry cleaner, post office, bank and courier counter.
The wooden plaza, which draws on Japanese minimalist design aesthetics, follows the Tokyo 2020 theme of using timber in the construction of Olympics venues, including the National Stadium. The apartment complex abutting the shopping plaza was built on reclaimed land, and designed to house about 12,000 people in 23 buildings. It includes shops, a park and a school. The buildings will be converted into flats later.
Eat alone
Organisers were originally planning to feed residents of the village in vast dining halls — the largest with a capacity to seat 4,500 people. But now, organisers will ask athletes to dine alone, maintain social distancing with others, and wipe down surfaces after eating to curb the spread of the virus.
