The road to Tokyo just got a whole lot longer.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Tuesday, March 24, the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics due to growing concerns of COVID-19 worldwide.
The games will be postponed “to a date beyond 2020, but not later than summer 2021,” according to a statement by the IOC. They were originally scheduled for Friday, July 24, through Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020 and are likely to be pushed back to those exact dates in 2021.
The IOC’s decision comes from an extreme push from the community to postpone the games as COVID-19 worsens worldwide with no end date to the virus in sight.
For example, USA Swimming asked for a postponement on Friday, March 20, via a letter by CEO Tim Hinchey III. Many other individual athletes and national organizations around the world followed suit.
On Sunday, March 22, Canada announced they would not be sending any athletes to compete in Tokyo if the games were to go on as scheduled. Australia followed in their footsteps shortly after.
Finally, on Tuesday, March 24, the historic decision was made.
The Olympic Games have only been affected three times in their modern era, beginning in 1896. In 1916, 1940 and 1944, due to the World Wars, they were flat-out canceled, but have never been postponed.
The postponement leaves countless unanswered questions, ranging from the economy to scheduling conflicts, to how it will affect the athletes themselves and their training.
The Olympics are a multibillion-dollar endeavor. According to Time Magazine, Japan has already invested $12.6 billion into the games and the postponement, by some estimates, will reduce Japan’s annual GDP growth by 1.4%.
That $12.6 billion includes sponsorships, broadcasting rights, ticket sales and hotel and food purchases, with millions if not billions of more dollars scheduled to come in from the two weeks of events.
However, between COVID-19’s impact worldwide and the postponement of the Summer Games, Japan’s economy will take an extreme hit in the next year.
The historic decision will also cause major scheduling conflicts in 2021 as many of the Olympics’ biggest sports had world championships scheduled for those summer dates.
The 2021 World Athletics Championships are scheduled for Friday, Aug. 6, to Sunday, Aug. 15, in Eugene, Oregon, while the World Aquatics Championships are scheduled for Friday, July 16, to Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021 in Fukuoka, Japan.
Will these events, among others, be postponed? Will they be completely canceled? Their international governing bodies have major decisions on their hands.
As athletes dream every four years for a shot at Olympic gold, one can’t help but wonder how this postponement will affect them.
Some athletes simply won’t be affected. They see this as just another year to train harder and perfect their craft.
However, others put their whole lives on hold for the Olympics; they drop out of school, postpone retirement, move their families to elite training facilities and do whatever it takes to be victorious.
Will these Olympic hopefuls be physically, mentally and financially able to handle another year of full-time training?
Steele Johnson, Team USA diver and 2016 bronze medalist told The New York Times, “We’ve had a very, very tough year financially. I don’t know if I could keep up a lifestyle like this for another 12 to 15 months of just diving without getting a full-time job. It’s hard to think about making more sacrifices than we already have.”
For Johnson and many others worldwide, the news will affect them greatly, not just financially, but also on the track, in the pool and in the gym. Training plans must now be completely re-evaluated.
Plans are perfected years before the games to ensure athletes peak physically at the perfect time, but with a whole extra year to go, what will happen to training?
With the added difficulty of social distancing measures disabling athletes’ ability to leave their houses and go train with coaches and teammates (at gyms that are now closed), how will Olympic hopefuls bounce back from this hurdle?
Postponing the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics is arguably the right call, and the thousands of athletes worldwide who called for it in the first place, would agree. However, as the world navigates uncharted territory with both the growing COVID-19 pandemic and the first ever Olympic postponement, many questions have yet to be answered.
One thing is for certain: When the Summer Olympic torch is finally lit in Tokyo, five years after it was lit in Rio, we’ll be in for a good set of games.
Photo Courtesy of Charly Triballeau
