Is it possible rather than make them a complete joke by having them this summer with few fans and multiple athletes not being allowed to compete we:
I get the Olympics are a point of enormous pride for the Japanese, but wouldn’t a well organized and unsullied Olympics be better and more honorable than a half assed effort because of COVID?
The most compelling argument is that last minute schedule changes are disruptive and potentially dangerous for athletic training regimes. The best-in-the-world class of athlete competing in the Olympics is likely engaged in a multi-year program that is carefully and specifically designed to peak with their appearance in these particular games. If you introduce a one-year delay at this point (after already having delayed once), they have to rejigger their practice routine accordingly, which will impact their performance and possibly increase the risk of injury. Some will choose not to participate, or will be entirely unable, especially if they’re privately or sponsor funded and can’t manage yet another year of maintenance training. And so on.
The point is, these are not just casual games played by the duffers in the corporate softball club that you can easily shift from one weekend to another. Major schedule changes will have major consequences for athlete participation and performance.
The question, obviously, is whether the positives outweigh the negatives. I perceive an emphasis on apparent positives in the OP, and a dramatic understatement of the negatives, which are legion. It’s not a slam-dunk debate.
Yeah I see where the op is coming from, but ask most athletes and they’d probably say that some chance for some people to compete now, after 5 years is a lot better than nothing. And next year, if covid is under control, we have the regular cycle of world championship athletics, winter Olympics etc anyway.
And for the regular Joe, I think that most like me are really looking forward to it. I’m certainly going to tune in for more than I did for the last one.
The problem is that the best time to do something is always down the road. ‘We can look at lifting resting 6 weeks from now…’ And then we never get there. Same thing with the Olympics, we could be extra safe by just waiting…and then we will be waiting forever.
I’ve obeyed every Covid restriction, haven’t even left my neighborhood in over a year, and just got vaccinated yesterday. But, I do believe we can’t live forever wrapped in bubble wrap and keep waiting for that exact mythical moment that we all know it’s safe
Canceling this year would be strike three for Tokyo (2021, 2020, 1940). As a point of national pride, putting on any kind of event (half-assed or not) is essential and frankly the bar is as low as it will ever be. As for any inconvenience to the athletes, that’s never been the highest priority for the organizing committees and their respective governments.
In addition to what others have already said, postponing the Olympics would also greatly disrupt the schedule of the World Championships for each of the Olympics’ sports, which are organized by their respective sports governing bodies (such as FINA for swimming/diving) outside the purview of the International Olympic Committee, and as far as I know, these championships have their dates and venues scheduled years in advance.
Though kind of addressed the other thing with regard to the athletes is that there is a small band of peak athletic capability in their late 20s (well, it varies by sport but close enough) by delaying the olympics we will be pushing some athletes out of that window and they may never have a chance to be olympians or they may miss their second shot.
I had thought the Olympics might mark a wondrous celebration for the world coming out of this pandemic but how naive I was. If it goes ahead most of the world will still be knee deep in the battle.
I hope the Japanese can still do it beyond this summer, but they have claimed that it’s this summer or never.
Sports are not that important but are wonderful, the most important of unimportant things. If they could find a way to safely hold a full-throated Games I’d support that. If half the teams can’t or won’t bother, why not give Japan another chance in the future rather than sandwich them into the regular two year slot between them?
I’ve heard if the games are not held this year, the Tokyo games will be cancelled entirely. They will not be made up. No accommodations will be made. This is Japan’s last and only chance to host in the next 30 years or whatever, period.
To be fair the IOC is very corrupt and if they move Japan to an different olympic slot then they would lose out on the bribe money for 4 years and they certainly aren’t willing to sacrifice thay payday.
No host city has been chosen for 2032 and there well may be no other serious candidates; Brisbane is apparently considering it, but we’ll see.
It’s not like we didn’t have them in the same year as Winter for many decades.
Come on, do both Winter and Summer in 2022. Next summer in 2024.
Well, excuse me for not showing any sympathy for the 1940 cancellation since Japan was committing genocide through the Far East at the time.
OR, ok we let them have them this year, but maybe schedule them again there in 2032 as a “make up”?
That’s not fair either.
Apparently Japan is now battling a fourth wave, so an olympics this summer is not a certainty even now.
Note, however, that the fourth wave in question consists of around 3,000 cases a day in a nation of 126 million. For context, Illinois has about the same total number of cases right now with 1/10 of the population.
This is not to say that the situation in Japan couldn’t get bad enough to force them to cancel – exponential growth can be brutal, and for some reason, they are lagging way behind pretty much all other wealthy countries and lots of middle-income ones in terms of vaccinations – but in terms of raw numbers, this is not a particularly large wave as yet.
But it’s not about whether the case numbers are large relative to the US. The US has been an absolute shit storm and while it’s wonderful that a corner has now been turned clearly it’s going to take time to restore safety.
Meanwhile, the only reason anyone is contemplating holding an olympics in Japan is because the case rate is orders of magnitude lower, but the threshold for cancellation is way, way before the numbers look anything like the US.
Italics mine.
Or at least should be way before.