By: Caitlynn Coe
The Summer 2020 Olympics, an event that was looked forward to since the 2016 Rio Olympics. However due to the global pandemic, The Olympics postponed was moved till 2021. Now several questions come into play. Are athletes going to be ready in 2021? Have athletes been training? How will Covid 19 affect the organization of the Olympics?
The International Olympics committee (IOC) was under an immense of amount of pressure to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. However, the IOC had long insisted that the games would continue as planned. Although there were several countries already saying they would not participate, the Olympics was still going to take place. Not very much later, the IOC met with several presidents and decided that postponing the games would be the safest option.
The summer Olympics have been canceled three times before. The Summer 2016 Olympics held in Rio, Brazil took place despite the Zika virus, however the coronavirus can be easily transmitted between humans. Prior to the cancelling of the Olympics, the coronavirus also caused the cancellations of the NBA, NHL, English Premier League, and several other world tournaments.
Due to this cancellation, athletes have been set back tremendously. Because most of training for almost all sports takes place in public areas with several people, social distancing can be complicated. For this reason, many athletes went weeks, some even months without training. This also results in a physical set back within the athlete’s body and their skills. Because Olympics are only held every four years athletes follow a certain training plan in order to be completely ready for the week of the Olympic trials.
However, once pushed back a year this makes it very hard for athletes to get back on track. On the other hand, even if they took part in training it would be very different then it was before. In order to prevent the spread of corona virus there are various restrictions some even considered laws to follow. For example, wearing a face mask in public, staying 6 feet apart, maiming a capacity within a closed area. All these making it very difficult to adapt to new training. Along with these restrictions, many believe that the organization of the 2021 Olympics will also follow a new strict set of rules. This will most likely result in less audience due to social distancing. This may be a problem when regarding money because usually all seats are expected to be filled up. With the Olympics being postponed, Tokyo already lost billions of dollars, not filling up the seats would result in more loss.
The IOC claims that the Summer Olympics will take place no later than 2021 In Tokyo. This means that athletes must be ready by next year. The 2024 Olympics is still set in calendars to take place in Paris. This creates another issue among the world of athletes. They are given 4 years in between each Olympics to physically and mentally prepare. Having the Olympics in 2021 and 2024 would be only a 3-year difference. This can throw off the course of an athlete tremendously, not giving them enough time to reach the point where they need to be to qualify.
Having the knowledge that has been given, the global pandemic has affected millions of lives, and the Olympics and athletes participating are no exception. Within the next months, the IOC will be coming out with more information regarding rules and restrictions and plans that will be followed to maintain safety among all.
The Watchdog 