Tokyo Games: Australia won’t compete at 2020 Olympics, tell athletes to prepare for delay
Australia has pulled the pin on this year’s Olympic Games as the Coronavirus pandemic takes over the planet. But in 16 months the world will be reunited after a horror period of dark isolation.
Sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Sport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Campbell turns her Olympic torch towards Paris
- Olympics nightmare: dilemma between cancelling and postponing
- Aussie Olympic hopefuls told prepare for July 2021
JULY 23, 2021. Mark it down in your calendar now.
That’s when the world will be reunited after the dark isolation of the coronavirus pandemic has passed.
A year later than originally planned, Tokyo will host an Olympic Games the likes of which have never been seen before.
Watch sport on Kayo. Anywhere. Anytime. Just $25/month, cancel anytime. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
The first Olympics to be rescheduled, the 2021 Games will serve as an everlasting triumph of humanity, proof that anything can be overcome when the will is there.
Tears will be shed for the lost loved ones but Tokyo 2021 is the beacon of hope that’s helping to console the hundreds of Australian athletes whose dream of competing in the Japanese capital this year have been destroyed by an invisible killer virus sweeping the globe.
“Whenever you encounter a roadblock or a speed bump or an obstacle you just think ‘OK, what’s my next step to get to that end goal’,” swimming champion Cate Campbell told The Daily Telegraph.
“Sometimes you have to step sideways, sometimes you have to step backwards but you still have that one direction and that one focus, which is part of the athlete mentality and the athlete psyche.”
Slammed as being tone deaf less than a week ago for insisting the Games would go ahead this year despite the unfolding humanitarian crisis, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) did the right thing by telling our best athletes to go home to their families now until starting preparations for 2021 when the worst it’s safe to go back out.
It’s not official yet that the Games and Paralympic Games will be rescheduled to 2021 but you can take it as read after the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe both acknowledged that postponement was preferred ahead of cancellation.
The AOC admitted as much and more by telling athletes to prepare for the 2021 northern summer – which is insider code for the last week of July and first week of August – the tiny window that suits the American broadcaster NBC, whose agreement to postpone the Games is pivotal to it happening.
“We are now in a position where we can plan with greater certainty,” the AOC chief executive Matt Carroll said.
The IOC said it will make a formal announcement on the fate of the Games within the next four weeks but it’ll come much sooner now that Australia – one of only five countries to have attended every Summer Olympics since 1896 – has told athletes to down tools.
Ultimately, it was athletes that forced the IOC’s hand, by sending a powerful message that they did not want the Games to go ahead unless there was a level playing field.
That simply isn’t the case in Europe – the current epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak – and North America, where the death toll is rapidly increasing.
Relatively untouched so far, Australia is bracing for the worst to come but has led the way in persuading the IOC and the Japanese organisers to change the biggest sports event on the planet but these are unprecedented times that require unprecedented solutions.
Rescheduling the Games is a mind-boggling, complex procedure because it involves so many different stakeholders and will end up adding billions to the final balance sheet so there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Not everyone will be happy and there will be casualties.
Some athletes who would have gone this year won’t make it in another 12 month’s time and the entire sports calendar for 2021 will have to be completely arranged but the wait will be worth it.
“Although it’s a devastating prospect for the Games to be postponed, it is the correct decision,” Swimming Australia boss Leigh Russell said.
“When the time is right, we will look ahead to the planning phase for 2021 but right now our focus must remain on stopping and slowing the spread of COVID-19 and supporting our people.”
Originally published as Tokyo Games: Australia won’t compete at 2020 Olympics, tell athletes to prepare for delay
Leader under siege in wild Bathurst finish
The Bathurst 1000 going down to the wire after a crash late in the race sparked a frenetic finish to the Great Race at Mount Panorama.
Revealed: Roos’ shock play for premiership Pie
North Melbourne is desperate for more experience on its list, and while chasing Luke Parker, Jack Darling and Caleb Daniel, JAY CLARK reveals they also made a bold play for a Premiership pie.