Last domino falls: 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics succumbs to coronavirus threat

Last domino falls: 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics succumbs to coronavirus threat

This was the last major sports event to be suspended/postponed/cancelled since the spread of COVID-19.

Ayaz MemonUpdated: Friday, March 27, 2020, 07:45 AM IST
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Tokyo Olympic | REUTERS

On Tuesday this week, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, and Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, announced the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, ending weeks of uncertainty and suspense.

This was the last major sports event to be suspended/postponed/cancelled since the spread of COVID-19. The past few weeks had seen hectic parleys between the member countries of the IOC with Bach and other administrators, and they in turn with the Japanese government.

The 2020 Summer Olympics are now scheduled for 2021. The dates are still to be finalised. Given the number of events/tournaments that have been pushed back, rejigging the sports calendar for the next couple of years will be a nightmare for federations and administrators. I’ve touched on the reasons for the current grim scenario in some recent pieces, but this needs to be retold.

In the past few weeks, the coronavirus has become a dreaded global scourge, keeping planet Earth on knife’s edge, as it were, playing havoc with everyday life. Fear and uncertainty linked to COVID-19 has seen governments, promoters and federations come under enormous pressure on whether to hold tournaments as scheduled or go in for suspension/postponement or even cancellation if need be.

The spread and threat of COVID-19 has grown exponentially to become a tsunami, compelling the World Health Organisation to classify it (somewhat belatedly one thought) as a pandemic, triggering even greater turmoil in the already beleaguered world of sports.

As it spread from China, Italy and Iran to other European countries in February, anxiety started to mount. When the United States was breached, it virtually signalled the end of bravado among sports promoters and administrators.

Since then, other parts of Asia, particularly India and Pakistan, two thickly populated countries, have also shown a spike in positive cases (though not to the extent of China, Iran and several European countries), which has brought the world to a virtual standstill.

Events slated in the months March to August were the worst hit as a cascading pattern of suspensions and postponements began. Only two major events were holding out: Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL), which was being held behind closed doors, and the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled to begin on July 24.

On Monday, the NRL authorities gave in under mounting criticism, and on Tuesday, the IOC and Japanese government – after weeks of resistance – pulled the plug on the Tokyo Olympics shifting it to the summer of 2021. Forget cancelling, even deferring a major sports event can be harrowing, and none more than the Olympics, the biggest sports extravaganza that there is.

It comes once in four years, and represents the pinnacle of sporting excellence, commanding the attention of the world. Huge time, effort, energy and imagination from countless people are needed to host the Olympics, and monumental sums of money, too. Japan, it is reckoned, has spent billions (the figures range from 18 – 25 billion USD) already to host the Games, which now stands postponed by a year.

The reluctance of IOC president Thomas Bach and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to delay the postponement till this week is understandable: not only for the cost already incurred, but also because the logistics of hosting the Olympics are so daunting. The other aspect to the Olympics is no less important, and which also played a huge part in prevailing on the IOC and the Japanese government to take the belated call. This has to do about preparations of athletes. Till the Games were suspended, only 57 athletes had qualified. With life across the globe in a state of lockdown, how do athletes prepare, and with what kind of mindset? What about contact sports like boxing, wrestling? Or for that matter, swimming and diving where risk of contamination can be very high?

And then what of team sports involving athletes in proximity with each other for long periods? Anxiety among athletes (stemming from fear of disease as well as inadequate preparation) was rising, several national federations were showing disinclination to participate, and Canada even went to the extent of pulling out of the Tokyo Games. That sealed the issue. Barring the two World Wars, the Olympics have never missed the four-year cycle.

There have been boycotts (US plus most of the Western world in 1980, USSR and the Eastern Bloc in 1984), but since 1988 the IOC has been able to impress on member countries that the Olympics are sacrosanct and must be placed above political conflicts. In the last three decades, the Olympics have become bigger as a spectacle and for showcasing human sporting excellence. Tokyo 2020 held out rich promise of raising the bar in both aspects to hitherto unseen heights.

Within the matter of a few months, sadly, these expectations lie in tatters. Yet, the postponement was imperative. Armed conflicts between countries may not stymie the Olympics any longer, but with a new enemy that threatens humans itself, the terms of engagement must be different.

Finding a counter to the COVID-19 may take time, and this must be accepted with humility, courage and patience. As I mentioned last week too, sport remains crucial to our existence, but preserving life is top priority for all of us on this planet. The writer is a senior journalist who has been writing on the sport for over 40 years.

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