Hosting the British Team at Hiyoshi: An Experience as a Host University Etched in Olympic History

2021/12/15

"We will be hosting the pre-Games training camp for the British Olympic and Paralympic teams for Tokyo 2020 at the Hiyoshi Campus." When I heard this news from the Office of the President, I had an immediate feeling that this would be a wonderful experience for Keio University and its current students.

As a medical committee member for the Japanese Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation, I have been involved in the management of many international competitions. While there is little precedent for this in our country, it is not uncommon overseas for universities to provide their campuses and cooperate in the operation of large-scale international competitions. Most recently, for the Winter Universiade (2019, Krasnoyarsk, Russia) and the Winter Youth Olympics (2020, Lausanne, Switzerland), Siberian Federal University and the University of Lausanne, respectively, served as host universities, welcoming the athletic delegations.

Having witnessed the wonderful array of exchanges that take place at the student, staff, and even citizen level, and having experienced the splendor of a university hosting an international event, I was convinced that if this were to unfold at the Hiyoshi Campus, it would become an invaluable legacy for Keio students, faculty and staff, and the Athletic Association groups.

Nevertheless, the preparations for hosting were extremely demanding. It was not simply a matter of providing a practice venue—or "lending a space"—but involved a multitude of "hospitality" services that a host university must provide in terms of both hard and soft infrastructure: accommodation, transportation of people and equipment, meal services compliant with anti-doping regulations, various forms of daily life support, training for student volunteers, and medical safety and crisis management, to name a few. Fortunately, my past experience gave me a clear image of what specifically needed to be prepared, which I shared with the Office of the President and the Hiyoshi management service staff.

The progress of the preparations that followed was remarkable. Although I had braced myself for some negative feedback, such as, "Mr. Ishida, this is just impossible," the "can-do attitude" for the British team was astonishing, and in the blink of an eye, the necessary framework for hosting, including partner companies, was established. Perhaps our experience in holding events like the Alumni Mita-kai Convention played a part, but it was a moment when I truly felt the underlying strength of Keio University.

However, the situation changed completely with the COVID-19 pandemic. The separation of movement flows became a mandatory condition for holding the Olympics, Paralympics, and the pre-Games training camp, making any face-to-face interaction impossible. Unfortunately, the role of the host university shifted from "hospitality" to "infection control measures."

There was a time when the holding of the Olympics and Paralympics themselves was in jeopardy, but I believe the tide turned significantly with the US Open tennis tournament held in September 2020 (the tournament won by Naomi Osaka). This event adopted a method of repeated PCR testing during the tournament while restricting areas of movement. Travel was limited to between the venue and accommodations, and leaving the lodging was prohibited.

Athletes, staff, and tournament officials were all placed under this management, and the safe, enclosed space they were confined to was called a "Bubble" (the same concept as a "sterile zone" in an operating room). Impressively, no clusters occurred during the tournament. The demonstration experiment as a model for providing a safe competitive environment for athletes was a success.

So, could we create this Bubble at Hiyoshi? Here, too, we were able to draw on past experience. The World Team Trophy in Figure Skating, held in Osaka in April 2021, was the first large-scale international competition in Japan to adopt the Bubble method. As it happened, Hirohiko Saso (2004, Faculty of Policy Management) and I were involved in creating this system. Mr. Saso runs a company that provides sports event consulting services and is someone who had early on accumulated know-how in tournament management that incorporated infection control measures. On the grounds that he was a fellow member of the Keio community, I got Mr. Saso involved, and after extensive discussions with the Hiyoshi staff, we succeeded in constructing a remarkable Bubble zone.

Thus, after many twists and turns, we managed to get the system in place just in time. However, once the hosting actually began, incidents of varying sizes occurred daily. In the medical sphere, in particular, we were at the mercy of the results of the daily PCR tests conducted on every member of the British team. The testing was a two-step process using different methods; if the first test was positive, a second test was performed for final confirmation. Unexpectedly, there were many false positives on the first test, and each time, a wave of tension ran through the campus.

Regardless of nationality, if a positive case occurs in Japan, it must be reported to the public health center, which then identifies close contacts and designates an isolation location for the individual. Since medical safety, including reporting and online interviews, was my role (on 24-hour call), I had to carry out my university duties while constantly carrying a communications iPad and reporting forms during the British team's stay.

The location designated by the government for isolation in the event of a confirmed positive case was, of all places, the Shonan Village Center. The Shonan Village Center is situated on a hill in Hayama, a scenic spot overlooking Sagami Bay, but the athletes had not come to Japan for a retreat. How were we to address their anxiety about being moved from Hiyoshi to Hayama for isolation? A particular challenge was that the support system for Para athletes requiring daily assistance was launched without sufficient explanation from the authorities.

Was it the blessing of Yukichi Fukuzawa? Fortunately, we were able to conclude the training camp period without a single confirmed positive case among the athletes. The fact that we were able to send the athletes and staff off to the Olympic Village safely, without any major incidents or clusters during their stay, can be said to be a fulfillment of Keio University's role. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my senior and junior colleagues from the School of Medicine who cooperated with the medical system, and to everyone at their affiliated medical institutions.

A total of 10 Keio students and Keio University alumni participated as athletes in the Tokyo 2020 Games. Meanwhile, a major feature was that numerous Keio students and Keio University alumni were also involved on the supporting side of the Games.

I have heard that at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session held in Rome in 1966, Keio University alumni Shingoro Takaishi, an IOC member at the time, sent a recorded voice message from his sickbed, which greatly contributed to the come-from-behind victory in the bid for the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, a bid that had been reported as being at a disadvantage ( see "People Around Yukichi Fukuzawa" in the February 2019 issue of this journal ). Of course, the main stars of the Olympics are the athletes, but I feel that contributing from a position of supporting the Games' operations behind the scenes, like Mr. Takaishi did, has a strong affinity with the history of Keio and the Olympics.

In that sense, hosting the British team's pre-Games training camp this time will surely be etched as one of Keio's Olympic legacies. However, it is a matter of profound regret that, as a result of our COVID-19 response, we were unable to leave this major event as a hands-on experience for our students, faculty, and staff.

As I mentioned at the beginning, it is by no means rare for universities overseas to host international competitions. I hope that in the near future, Keio will also plan various international exchanges using sports as content. I believe that by realizing this, the recent experience can be elevated from nostalgia to a true legacy.