Hugh McAtamney at the Tokyo Paralympics: A Bubble inside a Bubble inside a Bubble

Although Ireland didn’t manage to qualify any athlete for the para-triathlon event at the Tokyo Paralympics, Hugh McAtamney is flying the flag for us in Japan.

Hugh is Ireland’s most experienced technical official and has worked in that capacity at more than a dozen major competitions, including two Olympic Games; and European and World Championships.

Ahead of the Para Triathlon events this Saturday and Sunday, Hugh gave us a fascinating insight in to what it’s like to be in Tokyo in an official capacity.

Technical Officials and Athletes often refer to being part of the Olympic or Paralympics games as being inside a bubble. Outside you have all the media and spectator attention, nations medal hopes and the razzmatazz. Inside the bubble it’s actually just like any other event in many ways, albeit with higher stakes. Indeed athletes often say that once they come inside the athletes lounge and see familiar faces they start to relax because everything feels familiar. Tokyo 2020 is different.

Having had the privilege of being a technical official at the London and Rio Olympic games I arrived two days ago to officiate at my first Paralympic games. This time around I am Chief Bike Official. A lot has been written about the bureaucracy and COVID restrictions surrounding attending the event, and for sure, the process of entering japan and getting immigration clearance is an intimidating experience. The fear of having even just one piece of data incorrect or out of date plagues you throughout the 3 hour disembarking process at the airport. But if you followed instructions to the letter there is no problem.Nonetheless it was a relief to step inside my hotel room with luggage intact.

Were all familiar now with the concept of COVID bubbles. the extent to which the organisers, along with world triathlon, have taken to keep all officials and athletes from interacting or crossing paths with other people, federations and bubbles is incredible.

The venue for Triathlon in Odiabo bay is, in itself, a technical and engineering masterpiece. Built and Ready to go since March 2020, It is almost completely constructed on an artificial platform over the sea, with massive adjustable nets to control the water quality and 4 water mounted power generators to cool the 28 degree sea water. For all of this to work everything needs to start and finish on time. And it does, seamlessly. Only the Japanese could have done this. And fair play.

It easy to forget about  this when were looking at it on the TV or commenting on twitter. It hasn’t been easy for the organisers. When i complimented the fairly smooth airport transition and thanked the ‘volunteer’ (yes volunteer) who brought me to my hotel at crazy o clock in the morning for her efforts, she was delighted and told me that the compliment had made her day. she said all she hears is people complaining about everything. This must be demoralising at some level. But it certainly doesn’t show. The welcome you get from the moment you get off the plane to the guard of honour the officials received when we arrived at the venue for the first time was genuine. You can feel the pride and passion of the natives.

One of the best parts of the games is catching up with old friends and sharing war stories. Technical officials are the same the world over. But at this event there is no socialising and the only ‘banter’ to be had is when we are at the venue where we are all pretty busy from very early in the morning.

We do have an organised online social hour together at the end of each day. But the craic went out of zoom a long time ago.
When you consider the fact too that all officials are rooming on the same floor in the hotel its crazy to think we are connecting with each other online when we are all literally cheek by jowl in our own personal bubbles.

So, there is a different tone to these games. It’s jovial but serious. We are here to make the games work. The attention to detail is overwhelming, the service provided to the officials is the best i have ever seen. Most if not all of the 10 full time operations staff working on these games are both technical officials and race organisers themselves. Walking through the spectacular venue and seeing the eerily empty spectator stands makes me realise that under normal circumstances this would have been, by far, the best Olympics games in a very long time. It’s just a privilege to be here.