Tokyo 2020

Ceepo

With the ceremonial handing over of the Olympic torch from Greece to Japan, one could be forgiven for thinking that the games will go ahead.
Imo there is zero chance of this happening in 2020. Maybe it will be posponed, deferred or just outright cancelled altogether, who knows.
But I for one dont see it happening, for lots of reasons.
Qualifying competitions not complete yet in a lot of sports.
A lot of team sports can't train together.
To much disruption to individual athletes preparation world wide..
Most countries won't have there qualifying trials completed.
And this is before we even get into travel restrictions etc..

Anyone else share my view

Ps I know it's not life or death if its cancelled, but it does have a huge impact economically world wide, and I'm sure on mental health as well.

adrian522

Agree, best case scenario they move it by a year, I don't see any way they can go ahead in 2020.

adrian522

Good read here (behind paywall):

https://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/olympics/its-time-to-say-sayonara-to-the-2020-olympics-39057023.html

average_runner

Maybe it will happen in October or Dec.
Can't see it not happening at some stage, too much money to be lost.

TFBubendorfer

adrian522 wrote: »

Good read here (behind paywall):

https://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/olympics/its-time-to-say-sayonara-to-the-2020-olympics-39057023.html

"Right now the IOC is that incoherent drunk, oblivious to the outside world, refusing to leave the pub long after closing time".

Sums it up in one sentence!

mloc123

No chance this will happen this year?

I think best case scenario, most countries get a handle on this in the next 3-4 months but international travel will be severely curtailed long after that?

Rossi7

Sure hasn't WADA cut back on the testing of athletes since the outbreak of the virus ? Potential to be even more dirtier than London, who would of thought

adrian522

Lots of events haven't done their qualification yet so they need timee to do that.

Also are athletes supposed to stay in peak shop under lockdown and expect to be ready to go at short notice (be that for qualifying or the main event)

Ceepo

Looks like US athletics and swimming federation are look to have the Olympics postponed


https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2020/03/21/tokyo-olympics-usa-track-field-postponement-coronavirus/2890739001/

https://www.kucb.org/post/usa-swimming-calls-tokyo-summer-olympics-be-postponed-2021#stream/0

BeepBeep67

Canada have withdrawn their team

Peregrinus

The Australian Olympic Committee is advising Australian athletes to prepare for an Olympics held in the northern summer of 2021.

Ceepo

So it will be postponed possibly until 2021.
Definitely the right decision under the circumstances.

“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound said in a phone interview. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2020/03/23/olympics-2020-ioc-member-tokyo-games-postponed-dick-pound-coronavirus/2899848001/