Will veterans hold good when the Games begin?
Last Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government finally pulled the plug on this year’s Tokyo Olympics postponing it to 2021.
In the preceding few weeks — what with one major tournament after another being cancelled or suspended — the IOC and Japanese government had been holding out against hope that the situation would improve in time for the Olympics to be staged.
Several dissenting voices — among member countries of the IOC, sports federations and influential athletes, former and current — were demanding suspension of the Games, citing lack of time to prepare as well as fear of the disease itself. The situation was fast reaching boiling point.
Given the consequences — financial, administrative, on athletes et al — it couldn’t have been easy for Thomas Bach, president of the IOC and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reach this decision. But with the Covid-19 pandemic showing no signs of abatement, there was no other recourse.
Except during the two World Wars of the 20th century, the four-year cycle of the Olympics has been followed diligently, and the Games have grown steadily in status and spectacle to become the most coveted sports event on the planet.
There have been hiccups. In 1980, the US led a boycott of the Moscow Olympics by the Western Bloc following USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. In 1984, the USSR paid back in kind by boycotting (along with the Eastern Bloc) the Los Angeles Olympics. But the Games were still staged.
From 1988, the IOC moved aggressively — with support of all member countries — to make the Olympics sacrosanct and above political conflicts.
In fact, the Olympics are seen as the best peace-broker between nations, and a platform for all humanity to interact, albeit competitively, by chasing sporting excellence.
Tokyo 2020 held out rich promise of all such expectations being fulfilled, before being hit for a six by the Corona virus. The Olympics of 2020 will now be held in the summer of 2021. The relief that the Olympics have not been summarily cancelled, only postponed, must be seen in the perspective of the havoc Covid-19 has played with all major sports events. Already, everything scheduled till May end has been suspended. And nobody has a clue when things will improve.
The itineraries of all sports will have to be rejigged going ahead which, apart from the huge financial losses that are already being incurred, will be a daunting task for administrators and federations. I foresee a bitter battle between sports for grabbing dates.
Equally badly hit are others in the sports eco-system: coaches, fitness and sports medicine experts, sundry support staff, workers attached to infrastructure, those involved in travel, hospitality etc. Tournaments like the Olympics, tennis Grand Slams, IPL, NBA, NFL, are billion dollar enterprises and massive job losses are expected.
Athletes, the biggest stakeholders, will be hit harder. If there are no more Grand Slam events this year, have we seen the last of Federer and Serena Williams for instance? With the Olympics delayed by a year, will M. C. Mary Kom be able to sustain her zest and form? And what of M. S. Dhoni, who was to gauge his own form for the T20 World Cup by playing the IPL?
Such concern is not restricted to veterans and old-timers only. There are a host of those wanting to participate in the Olympics for whom an extra year may spell doom to this ambition. So many might not be able to psychologically readjust to the new circumstances. And so on.
The ramifications of Covid-19 on sport are already monumental. One can only hope and pray that this enforced lay-off does not extent beyond a few months and action resumes at the earliest.