Olympic Swim Venue Ready

A diver demonstrates during a grand opening ceremony of Tokyo Aquatics Center Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A diver demonstrates during a grand opening ceremony of Tokyo Aquatics Center Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
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Olympic Swim Venue Ready

A diver demonstrates during a grand opening ceremony of Tokyo Aquatics Center Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A diver demonstrates during a grand opening ceremony of Tokyo Aquatics Center Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Tokyo opened its new Olympic swimming venue on Saturday, and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike pointed out that it was finished eight months ago, just weeks before the Tokyo Olympics were postponed until next year by the coronavirus.

“We have now completed all the new venues,” Koike said.

Now comes the hard part for Tokyo Olympic organizers: figuring out how to run the Olympics, nine months from now, in the middle of a pandemic. The Games are set to open on July 23, 2021.

Tokyo officials and the International Olympic Committee have been studying contingencies for months. But it may not be until next year that they reveal exactly how the Olympics can be pulled off.

How will 15,400 Olympic and Paralympic athletes from more than 200 nations and territories safely enter Japan? Add to this, thousands of officials, judges, media, broadcasters, sponsors, and VIPs.

Not to mention fans. Will it be only Japanese, or will non-Japanese be allowed in?

“It's stable for the time being,” Koike said, speaking of Japan were about 1,700 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19. “We would like to receive more athletes and more people from the outside."

The 15,000-seat swimming venue sits just off Tokyo Bay. Its cost is listed at $520 million, which makes it the second-most expensive venue after the $1.43 billion national stadium.

Tokyo organizers say they are spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics, although a national audit says the cost is twice that much.

Last month a University of Oxford study called Tokyo the most expensive Summer Olympics on record.

Among the first to swim a lap in the pool on Saturday was Rikako Ikee, who won six gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Ikee would have been among the favorites for several medals in Tokyo, but she was diagnosed with leukemia over a year ago. She has undergone treatment and is hopeful of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.



Man United Needs Near Perfect End to Season to Avoid its Worst Premier League Points Total


Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)
Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)
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Man United Needs Near Perfect End to Season to Avoid its Worst Premier League Points Total


Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)
Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes during the English Premier League soccer match between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United at the City Ground, Nottingham, England, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Mike Egerton/P via AP)

Manchester United needs to win seven of its eight remaining Premier League games this season just to match its worst-ever points total in the modern era.

That's how bad it's got for the record 20-time English champion in a crisis-hit campaign.

“We have to get it right fast,” head coach Ruben Amorim said after Tuesday's 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.

United’s lowest points total since the Premier League began in 1992 was 58 in the 2021-22 season. It is currently on 37, with 24 more points to play for, The AP news reported.

Seven wins would give Amorim’s team the 21 points needed to reach 58.

To put that in context, United has not won back-to-back games in the league all season. The last time it managed that was in the final two games of the previous campaign.

Amorim, meanwhile, has only won six and lost nine of his 19 league games since taking over in November. United has won 10 in total.

New lows The loss to Forest was United's 13th in the league this term. Last year's total of 14 defeats was the club's worst in the Premier League era.

Amorim said in January that this might be the worst team in United's history and things have only got worse since then.

While there is little danger this season of one of the world's most storied teams being relegated from the top flight for the first time since 1974, it will almost certainly hit new lows in the modern era.

United's lowest league position in the Premier League was the eighth-place finish overseen by former manager Erik ten Hag last year. It seems unlikely Amorim will be able to better that, with his team eight points below eighth-place Fulham.

Based on form, the likelier scenario is United finishes the season even lower than it already is, with Tottenham, Everton and West Ham all within touching distance.

Years of decline This season continues United's onfield decline since managerial great Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 after winning the club's last league title.

It was his and United's 13th championship of the first 20 years of the Premier League. The club hasn't won another since.

Its lowest finish in the Premier League under Ferguson was third.

Goal drought Among United's many problems this season have been a lack of goals. The Forest game was the 11th time it has failed to score in the league - prompting a desperate Amorim to play center back Harry Maguire in attack as he went in search of a late equalizer.

Maguire came closer than any of his teammates to scoring when seeing a stoppage time effort cleared off the line.

“We deserved more in this game, that is clear, but it was our fault. We need to be better in the last third," Amorim said.

Rasmus Hojlund, a striker signed from Atalanta for $82 million last season, has only scored eight goals in his 41 games in all competitions this term.

Strike partner Joshua Zirkzee has scored six in 45 appearances. United has scored 37 in the league all season with a goal difference of minus-4.

Amorim, however, insists he sees improvement.

“I don’t lie to myself," he said. "Everybody can say whatever they want to say, I see some things, but we need to win games.”