Thread by @graceleenews

I am the Olympic COVID-19 Liaison for my organization. #Tokyo2020 has so far been a crapshoot and is making me lose my hair: a thread.

For background, the Tokyo2020 Organizing Committee asked all media organizations, delegations and others involved to designate a COVID-19 Liaison, who would be in charge of getting their members into Japan and ensuring they follow coronavirus protocols while here.

We also had to submit an ‘activity plan’, which outlines what our members would be doing for the first 14 days in Japan. (After the initial 14 days they can go outside of the Olympic bubble - anywhere they want.)

If you look at the playbooks or any recent Olympics literature - they ask people to send ALL their questions to their liaison - as if we have all the answers. We attended 1 ‘training session’ 2 months ago, which was basically a 20 minute pre-recorded powerpoint presentation.

Every single procedure has been convoluted, done through a website that was designed on Office 365 and god, WHY do they insist on every piece of information being sent through an excel sheet? None of their new fancy apps work so all of our info was ultimately sent through e-mail.

Speaking of email, 99% of my emails have gone unanswered. I am supposed to be the liaison between my organization and the organizing committee, but that’s REALLY hard when they won’t give me the time of day. When they DO answer emails, they can't answer basic questions.

For example, I asked a few weeks ago if our registration numbers would become our ‘accreditation numbers’ - and then act as visas for entry into Japan. It’s a simple question, and the answer is yes - I found out later. But the response I got was: “I think so?”

Most of the time - I have found out VITAL information on my own and have had to act blindly. I literally feel like I’ve been just stabbing in the dark for about two months now.

Now - they’ve told us to download an app to monitor our health and to put in our COVID test results. It isn’t working for any of my colleagues. I’ve sent in multiple emails asking for a response - they won’t be able to enter Japan without this app running. But so far - nothing.

I haven’t even started covering the games in earnest yet but I am EXHAUSTED. I’m guessing this role usually goes to someone who does logistical stuff - and not a reporter. So I thought I’d raise some awareness on what’s been happening behind the scenes.

They had an additional year to prepare for the upcoming Games. And I get that things are difficult, especially with COVID in the mix. But as a resident of Japan, I am super nervous with how disorganized this all is. END.