Tokyo: The Tokyo Olympics were postponed on Tuesday to 2021, the first such delay in the Games’ 124-year modern history, as the coronavirus crisis wrecked the world’s last sporting showpiece still standing this year.
Though a huge blow to Japan, which has invested $12 billion in the run-up, the move was a relief to thousands of athletes fretting over training as the world headed into lockdown to fight a disease that has claimed more than 16,500 lives.
Pressure had been building on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its president, Thomas Bach, with some athletes and sporting bodies angry that a seemingly inevitable decision had taken so long. After a call between Bach and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, both said the July 24-Aug. 9 Games would move to summer 2021 at the latest in a hoped-for celebration of triumph over the pandemic.
The Olympic flame, already lit at Olympia in Greece and taken to Japan for a now-cancelled torch relay, would stay in the host nation as a symbol of hope.”Sport is not the most important thing right now, preserving human life is,’ Bach said. ‘This Olympic flame will be the light at the end of this tunnel.”
Though it was the first Olympics’ postponement, the Games were cancelled outright three times during the last century’s two World Wars. Cold War boycotts also disrupted the Moscow and Los Angeles Olympics in 1980 and 1984.
Athletes were disappointed but broadly endorsed the delay, given health risks and disruption to their training as gyms, stadia and swimming pools closed around the world.
”I compete in a little bike race, which is nothing compared to what is going on in the world right now,” said American Olympic BMX champion Connor Fields, who had been looking forward to his sport’s Games debut.
Many began focussing on next year’s competition.
”We’ll be more ready than ever in 2021 and wearing the maple leaf with more pride than I thought possible,” said Canadian Olympic wrestling champion Erica Wiebe, describing her feelings as: ”Utter relief. Excitement. Uncertainty.”
The coronavirus outbreak has raged around the world this year, infecting nearly 380,000 people and wiping out the international sporting calendar. Though 2021 looks crowded, as the sports world makes up for this year’s cancellations, World Athletics said it was willing to move its world championships, scheduled for August 6-15, 2021, in Oregon, to make way for the Olympics.