I was reading into the International Olympic Committee’s stand on their not yet postponing the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and they were saying that it is four months away and they will wait for further developments into the war against the coronavirus.
The Olympics are scheduled to take place from July 24 to August 9.
IOC President Thomas Bach told The New York Times that a postponement at this time would not be responsible now and premature given the data available to them and the entire world.
This despite calls from various sports associations for the postponement given the uncertain situation. Yet World Athletics Association President and former Olympian himself Sebastian Coe bared that a decision will be coming soon.
This pandemic has almost shut down the world from travel to social gatherings to various events to even work. All sporting events have been shut down as well. How the world recovers from this is anyone’s guess at this point.
Moving non-laterally, it is in my opinion that if Great Britain’s departure from the European Union did not affect the Old Continent much, the virus will seal those borders not just for now, but for good. Even prior to Brexit, I always thought that those porous borders were also bad (just as there is good). And this will affect travel and even migration.
I recall a time as a kid that one needed shots before one went abroad. Will we see a return to this?
To the premise, I see nothing wrong with a postponement. It is better than a cancellation. To date, only three Olympics have been canceled and that was due to world wars. Not even the deadly flu pandemic of 1918 or various financial crises have forced the Olympics to be cancelled.
How does one train given this environment of uncertainty? A lot of the sports are contact sports. Aside from the martial arts or boxing, football and basketball have athletes bumping into one another. Swimming can be frightening as many are immersed in water.
You will have people—athletes, officials, media, and fans—flying in from every part of the globe including some nations that have been hard hit by the virus. That is dangerous. It won’t take but one positive identification to shut it down and why waste time, money, and effort? Not to mention health.
Given the quarantines of various countries and state of health, it is prudent to postpone because to quote Coe, “a spirit of fairness is needed.” And that is so right. Right now, that focus and training has certainly been affected. It will take at least two months for everyone to get their strength and conditioning right.
I figure that the IOC will make its decision come sometime before mid-April and I foresee a postponement that is best for everyone concerned.