Tokyo 2020 Venues: Musashino Forest Sport Plaza (Badminton, Modern Pentathlon & Wheelchair Basketball)
Musashino Forest Sport Plaza is a multi purpose sports facility that will be utilized to host multiple events for the Tokyo 2020 Games. It appears in both the Paralympic and Olympic games itinerary. Located outside of the actual city of Tokyo in Chofu, it is right beside Tokyo Stadium (currently Anjimoto Stadoium). Musashino Forest Sport Plaza is one of the newer venues that has incredible infrastructure in place to hold some great events.
Events
There will be three events that will be ran out of this facility. Two in the Olympics and one in the Paralympics. The first event that will be featured out of Musashino Forest Sport Plaza will be Badminton. The whole event will span over ten days. The second will be the first event of the Modern Pentathlon. For the Paralympics the ever popular wheelchair basketball will be showcased.
Olympic Games
Badminton: (July 25th-August 3rd)
Badminton as a official sport of the Olympic games, was first introduced at the 1992 Barcelona games. It made a brief appearance twenty years prior in the 1972 Munich games, but just as a demonstration sport. In 1992 only four events appeared in the schedule, with singles and doubles events for both males and females. A mixed event was added in the 1996 Atlanta games, making for the five events we still see today.
The sport of badminton is a development of an earlier game called battledore and shuttlecock. Shuttlecock games have been played in many regions spanning both Europe and Asia for centuries, but the game we know of as Badminton today is much younger. The first historical document that it can be traced back to is from 1860, titled Badmington Battledore - A New Game. There is speculation on where exactly the game originated but many point to the Indian version called poona. It was then learned by British army officers who would bring it back to England.
Badminton began to become more of an organized sporting event in 1934. The International Badminton Federation was created with nine founding member nations. This would propel Badminton to the international scene, where it would eventually become the Olympic sport we see today.
Badminton at the Olympics features a single elimination tournament. Each match is played to a best of three, with each set being played to twenty-one points. A game however can go up to thirty points, if a player doesn’t win by two points prior.
At the past Olympics, there has been three predominant national teams. The team first in the medal count is China, with a grand total of forty-one medals. Following behind them is Indonesia and South Korea, both with nineteen. Badminton is a very popular sport in Japan, with over thousands of citizens playing the sport in some capacity. It will likely be a popular sport for local spectators and those from fellow Asian countries, so it makes sense why it will be featured in such a large venue.
Fencing in the Modern Pentathlon: (August 6th)
The modern pentathlon will feature just one event out of the Musashino Forest Sports Complex. That will be the first event of the lineup, fencing. They use a much abbreviated format than the official fencing event. The competitors use the épée, which is the largest sword used in fencing. It consists of several short round robin matches where every athlete faces each other once. The matches are only up to one point and last a maximum of one minute. If both fail in the ability to land a single point in that time frame, both are considered to have lost the match. At the end of the round robin, the athletes are ranked on who has the most total points.
Paralympics
Wheelchair Basketball
One of the most iconic events of the Paralympic games will be featured out of Musashino Forest Sports Plaza. Wheelchair Basketball, a fan favourite and an original sport featured at the first official Paralympics (1960 Rome) will be showcased. Events are organized by the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation, established in 1973, as the International Stoke Madeville Games Federation. Winning at the Paralympics for Wheelchair Basketball is considered the highest honor in the sport. Even more so than the World Championships.
There will be two separate events in the sport, one for the men’s teams and one for the women’s teams. In the men’s tournament twelve national teams qualify and in women’s ten. The teams are then evenly drawn into two groups. A round robin is then played, with the top four teams from each group proceeding to the knock out stage. They then play each other in a elimination style tournament to decide the outcomes.
Wheelchair basketball has a unique system in place, compared to most other sports. Since it is a team based sport, with such a range of athletes participating with different disabilities, a scoring system has been put in place. Wheelchair basketball players are given 1–4.5 points depending on there class. A team is only allowed to have a maximum of 14 points on the court at one time, making for more strategy involved in creating lineups.
In the men’s division the United States has had the most Paralympic success with thirteen medals, followed by Israel with seven and Canada with three golds and one silver. In the female’s event, the United States also has the most medals with eight, Germany in second with seven and Canada with four. Here is breakdown of the categories for athletes and the points associated with each class.
Location and Transportation
The Musashino Forest Sport Plaza is actually right beside Tokyo Stadium. It is located in the city of Chofu, a mere fifteen minutes away from Shinjuku. Chofu is a relatively small city with a population of roughly 220,000. It often serves as a commuter destination for city workers. Out of the big lights of downtown Tokyo, Chofu could serve as a great spot to act as a home base for Tokyo 2020. It offers a good position to access many different venues in the Tokyo prefecture.
Despite being in Chofu, Musashino Forest Sport Plaza isn’t actually that close to the Chofu train station. Instead of going to Chofu Station on the Keio Line, you should go two stops beyond to Tobitakyu Station (listed as stop 20). The Keio line is often less busy than the JR Line and cheaper as well, but considering the increased traffic, this will probably change during Tokyo 2020. Tobitakyu station is a mere six minute walk from the sports plaza.
Upon exiting the station through the northern exit, immediately head to the street to your left. To get to Musashino Forest Sport Plaza, you simply need to walk straight down this street for several minutes. You will reach a flight of stairs that will lead you up to Tokyo Stadium and it can be immediately seen to your right.
There are alternative means to get to the stadium. If you are closer to Tama station, there are often shuttle buses that will take you directly to the stadium. To get to Tama Station, you can take the Seibu Tamagawa Line. This is a popular way to reach the venue during game days of the J1 League, Japan’s highest level of football. It is unclear if this operation will continue during the games, but there are many other bus stops in the area that will make for easy access. This includes both city buses and shuttle bus services. There are actually seven bus stops directly behind the stadium as well.
Venue
The venue itself is rather new, only opening less than a year ago in November of 2017. As its name suggests, it is a multipurpose facility, with a rather distinct design, most notable the roof. There is an 50 m indoor swimming pool that is used for a range of events, from beginners lessons to competitive races. There is also smaller sub arena that has two basketball courts, but is also able to be used for martial arts and futsal. Two fitness studios exists for the daily use of the general public. There is also a football field and a track tucked behind both of the families. This all of course doesn’t include the main arena in which the Olympics will be run out of.
The main arena was still under some renovation in the summer but had no setbacks. It recently showcased the Japan Open Tennis Championships in early October with little problem.The main arena itself has a capacity of up to 10 000 with the inclusion of temporary seats. This is all around a 4 900 square meter floor, one of the largest at the Tokyo Games. The Musashino Forest Sport Plaza has many ramps and elevators, making it accessible for wheelchair use.
The venue’s surroundings features the Tokyo Stadium, a mere 30 second walk. Like Tokyo Stadium, there are many little restaurants in the area that make for a quick cheap meal. There is also a cafe in the sub arena called Cafe Shuttle and has some light snacks. There are multiple sport shops in the area as well, most of them being related to football.
So if you have some time and want to get out of the inner city to check out some other sports, than visiting Chofu is a great opportunity. With Musashino Forest Sport Plaza hosting three different sports for Tokyo 2020 and Tokyo Stadium being right there as well, it will inevitably make for some action packed days!
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