Asked what an Olympic bubble may look like, he said it might even be a moving bubble, with athletes from the same sport living, practicing, moving and competing around Tokyo together..
” I think thats exactly how its going to work,” Phelan said. “The obstacle is that while you can do it for, state, USA swimmers, can you do it for some of these underdeveloped countries? Thats where it gets harder, however every effort will be made to make it happen.”.
Checking for the virus would have been as important in 2020 as it will be in 2021. The Games may end up going on without viewers, simply as they would have had there been an attempt to stage them in 2020. While this would be ravaging to Tokyo organizers and fans, for the majority of the world, the Olympics are a television show anyhow.
IOC vice president Anita DeFrantz, a U.S. bronze-medal-winning rower in 1976 who missed out on the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow due to the U.S.-led boycott of those Games, said the question is not what may have been in 2020, however what might be in 2021.
” We worked hard to attempt to save the Games for 2020,” she said. “Now, its everything about putting on the Games safely in 2021. Its about the Olympic Games enduring. They will make it through.”.
In an alternate universe, thousands would currently be collecting in Tokyo in anticipation of Fridays opening ceremony of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. On March 24, under significant pressure from national Olympic committees and worldwide sports federations in the middle of the global pandemic, the International Olympic Committee held off the 2020 Games until 2021, fingers crossed. There was talk of what the world might look like if we were past the coronavirus by July 2020. The Games may end up going on without viewers, just as they would have had there been an attempt to stage them in 2020.” We worked tough to attempt to save the Games for 2020,” she said.
What a week this was going to be in the sports world. In an alternate universe, thousands would already be collecting in Tokyo in anticipation of Fridays opening ceremony of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
Never mind. On March 24, under incredible pressure from nationwide Olympic committees and international sports federations in the middle of the global pandemic, the International Olympic Committee delayed the 2020 Games until 2021, fingers crossed. It was the first postponement in the history of the Olympic movement.
The IOC was required to listen to the voices of the worlds athletes, who were quarantined in their houses and homes, unable to train or perhaps safely go outside. How on the planet were they going to get ready for an Olympic Games that then were four months away?
For a time, IOC President Thomas Bach was reticent to pull the plug on the 2020 schedule. There was talk of what the world might appear like if we were past the coronavirus by July 2020. How ridiculous does that noise now?
” What was really unexpected I think was that it took that long to come to the conclusion that it was a non-starter,” Dick Pound, the longest-serving IOC member, said in a current phone interview from his house in Montreal. I do not believe as numerous people as should have comprehended what a genuine pandemic is like.”
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Still, as the calendar turns to the week the Games would have started, its natural to believe about what may have been– other than that the truth of what in fact is happening is so stark and foreboding, its certainly a workout in futility to really even consider it.
” No way at all,” Pound stated. “You can see whats going on now in your nation and in Brazil, some of these other nations, where the wave is still showing up. Believe about what that would look like: youre going to quarantine entire Olympic teams for 14 days when they show up in Japan, assuming they can get there?
What would have been unthinkable in 2020 simply may occur in 2021, however. Modifications will likely be essential to hold the Games, so concepts that may have been used to save the 2020 Olympics just might hold over to 2021, as the 2 are one and the exact same, inextricably connected. For instance, a quarantine bubble of some sort, which would have been a should for the 2020 Olympics, may still be important for 2021.
Dr. Dermot Phelan, Director of Sports Cardiology at Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina, said that all sports most likely will be altered for the foreseeable future, including the Olympics in 2021, if they happen.
” My own view is that they most likely will be able to do it, but I believe it will look really different compared to any other Olympics, with COVID altering our lives daily,” he said.
