Heavily involved in sports themselves, and big influences in their offspring’s careers, dads David Crossley, Johnny Entzminger and Garry Hirayama were planning on watching their kids perform live in the Tokyo Olympics.
That was pre-March 2020.
Organizers made it official on Saturday that foreign fans will not be able to enter Japan to watch the 2020 Plus One Games this summer.
The more than 75 Island or Island-based athletes expected to compete in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics had to have seen it coming and already knew these Games were going to be different than any other.
“It’s no surprise, but it’s still disappointing because both my parents have been deeply supportive,” said Caroline Crossley of Victoria, a member of the Tokyo podium-favoured Canadian women’s rugby sevens team.
Her parents, David and Rhona, had planned to attend before the pandemic hit, postponing the 2020 Summer Olympics to this year. Familial ties run deep in the sport. David Crossley is president of the Castaway Wanderers, the Oak Bay-based rugby club through which Caroline Crossley came up.
Johnny Entzminger was a standout in hockey and lacrosse, playing in the WLA for the Victoria Shamrocks and winning the Minto Cup national junior championship with Victoria McDonald’s Bread. Those athletic genes were well inherited as daughter Emma Entzminger, a graduate of Lambrick Park Secondary and San Jose State of the NCAA, is an infielder on the Tokyo medal-touted Canadian women’s Olympic softball team.
“We had quite a crew planning to go to Japan with my dad, his best friend [Minto Cup-champion] Ross McKinstry, my mom [Maureen], sister Krissta and stepdad [Kel Kruger],” said Emma Entzminger.
“It’s disappointing but understandable and I know they will be cheering me on in front of their televisions.”
The important thing is that the Games are happening at all, said Entzminger.
Not having his father, Garry, in Tokyo is especially poignant for former University of Victoria Vikes rugby great Nate Hirayama, a member of the Olympics-qualified Langford-based Canadian men’s sevens team. Garry Hirayama was born in Vancouver and is of Japanese descent. Garry represented Canada internationally, earning 12 caps as a fly-half in XVs and being part of the first Canadian team to play in the Hong Kong Sevens. Garry passed on that love of the game to Nate to become the first father and son to have suited up for Canada.
“It would have been special on several levels,” said Nate Hirayama, the all-time leading Canadian scorer in sevens, and thrice a World Cup player for Canada in XVs.
Both his parents, Garry and Joan, had planned pre-March 2020 to be in Tokyo for the Olympics.
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s probably for the best,” said Nate Hirayama. “I don’t blame the organizers for making this decision. I know my family and friends will be supporting me though the TV, and at all crazy hours of the night.”
Organizers said 600,000 tickets were sold to fans from outside Japan.
“[It] is very disappointing and it’s regrettable. [But] it was an unavoidable decision,” organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto told the Associated Press.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said: “We have to take decisions that may need sacrifice from everybody.”
More than 4.45 million tickets have been sold to residents of Japan. Next month, organizers will announce the capacity for Olympic venues.
Japan, which has listed 8,800 deaths due to COVID-19, has controlled the virus better than most countries. Up to 10,000 fans are being allowed into games for the Japanese high school baseball championships this month. Both the pro Japanese baseball and soccer leagues have allowed fans into the stadiums on a percentage-capacity basis during the pandemic.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com
— With files from The Associated Press
