Japanese authorities were very busy for fourteen days while they observed operations in Indonesia and the Asian Games to learn lessons that could help in Tokyo’s effort to put on a successful Olympics and Paralympics in 2020.
Focusing primarily on during the games, which run for sixteen days in Jakarta and Palembang, their priorities ranged from finding countermeasures to defeat the heat and trying to figure out how to prevent it for their own athletes.
Japan’s temperatures are reaching record highs and this summer’s humidity raised health risk concerns for both athletes and spectators during the Tokyo Olympics. Japanese game authorities chose this 2 week lull to experiment with and find and anti- heat countermeasure that is robust, cheap and effective for the athletes.
Japan’s Association of Athletics Federations prepared small ice bags or palm-sized cold packs in the form of a palm-pad to help cool athletes during races in the sweltering heat.
Athletes were told to periodically hold a cold pack in their hands or make holes on their running gear to help all the athletes cool their bodies while they race or standby to race or even get ready to race.
Jakarta’s traffic problem (in addition to the high heat) also came under the spotlight as well as scrutiny. The city has a population of about 10 million people which is the same as the Japanese capital of Tokyo. The Olympic and Paralympic Games’ authorities sent a team tasked with investigating and analyzing transportation issues.
Reference: Japan using Asian Games experiences to deliver Tokyo Olympics
