MODERN OLYMPIC GAME

 

MODERN OLYMPIC GAME

The Tokyo Olympics were supposed to open on Friday. The coronavirus pandemic changed all that, causing the first postponement of a modern Olympics . A on what changed in 2020 and what to look for in 2021 …

MODERN-OLYMPIC-GAME

What led to the Olympic postponement

As the coronavirus outbreak intensified in February, the ioc created a task force with Tokyo Olympic organizers, the Japanese government and the World Health Organization . On March 22, the ioc announced it would take up to four weeks to assess the pandemic’s impact on the Olympics, including a possible postponement. After an emergency ioc Executive Board meeting, the IOC, Japanese government and Tokyo Olympic organizers agreed on a postponement to 2021 on March 24. ioc President Thomas Bach cited information from the who about the virus’ global spread and an increase in travel restrictions.

Then, on March 30, the new Olympic and Paralympic dates were announced: July 23-Aug. 8, 2021 for the Olympics and Aug. 24-Sept. 5 for the Paralympics, each a 364-day postponement.

What are the plans for 2021

Organizers are preparing different scenarios for the Games, including more than 200 possible ways of simplifying them, while noting it’s impossible to know what the world will look like a year from now. “We have to consider already now whether there will be measures necessary for access to Japan, for instance,” Bach told NBC Olympic primetime host Mike Tirico in May. “Do we maybe need quarantine for athletes from different countries or for all the athletes from all the countries? How can this be managed? Do we need special measures for access to the venues? How many people can access the venues? This is part of this mammoth task.”

On April 28, the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee president said the Games will be canceled if they can’t be held in 2021.

“[Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo] made it very clear from the beginning that summer 2021 is the last option,” Bach told the BBC in May. “Quite frankly, I have some understanding for this because you cannot forever employ 3,000 or 5,000 people in an organizing committee. You cannot every year change the entire sports schedule worldwide of all the major federations. You cannot have the athletes being in uncertainty. You cannot have so much overlapping for the future Olympic Games.”

How are athletes impacted

Nearly all Olympic sports competition shut down by late March. Some have returned in socially distanced forms without fans, including the PGA Tour, the AVP (beach volleyball’s domestic tour) and track and field. U.S. Olympic Trials in gymnastics, swimming and track and field were postponed to June 2021.

Given the U.S. Olympic team will be more than 500 athletes (out of more than 10,000 Olympians worldwide), there will be those who would have made an Olympic team in 2020 who do not make it in 2021. About 74 percent of all Summer Olympians competed in just one Games, so even just a one-year delay is very significant.

Can older athletes hang on? Think Kerri Walsh Jennings in beach volleyball, Ryan Lochte in swimming and Allyson Felix in track and field. We already know it will create opportunities for athletes who had no designs on a 2020 Olympics, such as gymnasts who were too young to qualify by one year. Now, a group of U.S. Women who turn 16 in 2021 can dream of Tokyo rather than waiting for Paris 2024. At least one U.S. Female gymnast who turned 16 or younger in the Olympic year made each of the last 10 Olympic teams.

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What happens next

Tokyo Olympic organizers will spend the rest of 2020 developing core countermeasures for the coronavirus before implementing them in 2021. Specifics haven’t been announced.

A few key other storylines: The ioc is asking for athlete feedback on a longtime Olympic Charter rule restricting athlete demonstrations and protests on the field of play. The NBA’s to-be-announced 2020-21 season schedule 

specifically how l opening ceremony of the xiv Summer Olympic Games. London was still cleaning up bombing damage from World War II when it staged the Olympics in 1948. Britain was also struggling financially; food, clothing and gas were still being rationed. The athletes had to bring their own towels and, with housing in short supply, were accommodated in schools and Royal Air Force camps. The games were organized in less than two years, and despite the tiny budget it was a success, its legacies including greater sporting opportunities for women.

Central London and the docks remained scarred from bombs and missiles. There were damaged buildings and roads, vacant lots, and lots of rubble. St. Paul's Cathedral seemed to be on an island among craters.

The organizers had a budget of 730,000 pound

 relying on corporate sponsors and sales of tickets and souvenirs. They asked for help from other Olympic nations. Timber came from Finland and Sweden for the basketball court. Gymnastics equipment came from Switzerland. Two Douglas Fir trees came from Canada for diving boards.

Britain was rationing food, clothing and fuel, so athletes were asked to bring their own towels. An Olympic village was deemed too expensive, so athletes stayed in military camps and schools.

German prisoners of war yet to be repatriated were used to build a road -- Olympic Way -- and pedestrian tunnel from the nearest subway station to Wembley Stadium.

More than 70 nations were invited, including the Soviet Union, which wasn’t part of the Olympic movement. But when the Soviets began blockading Berlin a month before the games and tried to send a weightlifting team, they were rebuffed.

file - In this July 29, 1948 file photo, British athlete John Mark holds the Olympic Flame aloft as he makes his circuit of the Olympic track during the opening ceremony of the xiv Olympiad, in Wembley Stadium, London. London was still cleaning up bombing damage from World War II when it staged the Olympics in 1948. Britain was also struggling financially; food, clothing and gas were still being rationed. The athletes had to bring their own towels and, with housing in short supply, were

 accommodated in schools and Royal Air Force camps. The games were organized in less than two years, and despite the tiny budget it was a success, its legacies including greater sporting opportunities for women. Provided by Associated Press FILE - In this July 29, 1948 file photo, British athlete John Mark holds the Olympic Flame aloft as he makes his circuit of the Olympic track during the opening ceremony of the xiv  Olympiad, in Wembley Stadium, London. London was still cleaning up bombing damage from World War II when it staged the Olympics in 1948. Britain was also struggling

 financially; food, clothing and gas were still being rationed. The athletes had to bring their own towels and, with housing in short supply, were accommodated in schools and Royal Air Force camps. The games were organized in less than two years, and despite the tiny budget it was a success, its legacies including greater sporting opportunities for women.

The ioc wanted Germany and Japan invited but the British government refused.

Palestine was coming until the invite was withdrawn by the ioc after Israel declared independence two months before the games, sparking another Middle East war. To avoid an Arab boycott, the ioc said Israel was not invited because it didn’t have an olympic committee.

A record 59 countries entered, and 37 won at least one medal. There were more than 4100 athletes, of which 385 were women, 100 more than in 1936.

There were some innovations: Starting blocks and a photo finish camera were introduced. It was the last Olympics to give medals to artists in sculpture, architecture, poetry and music.

What came to be known as the Austerity Games were remembered as friendly and fun, and even turned a profit of more than 29000 pounds.