Coronavirus: Should the games go on?
Amid a global pandemic of the coronavirus, Olympians are asking IOC for clarity about holding the Tokyo Games in July
For a day, maybe, it seemed that Stanford alumna Katerina Stefanidi and other Olympians had finally gotten International Olympic Committee leaders to wake up as they barrel onward in pursuit of holding the Tokyo Games this summer.
Stefanidi, the reigning Olympic pole vault champion from Greece, was among athletes to publicly express concern this week after IOC members and Japanese officials left the impression that the Summer Olympics, July 24-Aug. 9, would go on as planned.
“It is putting us at risk,” Stefanidi told Reuters.
Even Spain’s Olympic Committee president asked that the
Games be postponed because his country’s athletes cannot train adequately four months beforehand.
After the quick backlash from athletes, the august IOC sent out another statement: “This is an exceptional situation which requires exceptional solutions. The IOC is committed to finding a solution with the least negative impact for the athletes while protecting the integrity of the competition and the athletes’ health.”
By Thursday, they were back to defending their previous position. According to news reports, IOC leaders again insisted the Tokyo Games were on schedule in a conference call with the Japanese Olympic Committee and other Asian Olympic groups.
IOC president Thomas Bach said on the call that every national Olympic committee supported the policy — never mind Spain’s sports leader contradicting that claim.
Then came word from two Italian senior sports executives urging the IOC to revise its stance.
“I’m not against the Olympics. But saying that the Olympics will still go on is a big mistake in communication,” Giovanni Petrucci, who served as president of the Italian Olympic Committee for 14 years, told the Associated Press on Thursday.
While it is too early to shut down the biggest sporting event of the year, it is time for IOC leaders to provide transparent messaging in the midst of a global pandemic that has seen almost 200,000 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus and almost 8,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
The 11,000 athletes who would perform at the 2020 Summer Olympics deserve that much as they struggle to know how to proceed.
At a time when the Bay Area has joined France, Italy, Spain and other countries in lockdown to help slow the spread of COVID-19, Olympic and Japanese leaders at first said there is no need to take drastic measures. Seriously?
Just blithely go forth without contingencies at a time when many athletes no longer have access to training facilities?
“We all want Tokyo to happen, but what is the Plan B if it does not happen?” asked Stefanidi, who lives in Ohio. “Knowing about a possible option has a major effect on my training because I may be taking risks now that I would not take if I knew there was also the possibility of a Plan B.”
The NBA postponed its season March 11 after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, or coronavirus.
The next day, the NCAA, whose leadership often has been as tone-deaf as the IOC’s, canceled March Madness, the basketball tournament that reaps more than $1 billion in revenue.
The European soccer championships starting in June were rescheduled for 2021. Europe’s soccer leagues, Formula One and almost every other aspect of sports is on hiatus to help discourage large gatherings.
As usual, the athletes are the last consideration when it comes to Olympic decision-making. The leadership does not seem to understand the infrastructure that supports the endeavor IOC leaders like to call a “movement.”
“With the closure of Olympic training centers, I don’t know how in fairness that you can have it,” said Dena Evans, who coaches a Bay Area elite development running club. “The reason the Olympics might be difficult to do even if we are past the danger zone by then is it now has cut off opportunities for people to qualify.”
Han Xiao, chair of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee Athletes Advisory Council, was more forceful Thursday. He told veteran Olympic journalist Phillip Hersh, “The IOC is letting more than athletes down, they are potentially letting the world down in a worstcase scenario.”
Han said he hopes the U.S. Olympic leaders encourage the IOC to act more responsibly. The American leadership met by phone Thursday and have scheduled a teleconference with reporters for Friday morning.
IOC Athletes’ Commission member Hayley Wickenheiser used Twitter to berate the IOC’s stand that the Olympics would proceed as planned.
“I think the IOC insisting this will move ahead, with such conviction, is insensitive and irresponsible given the state of humanity,” wrote Wickenheiser, a four-time ice hockey gold medalist from Canada.
Wickenheiser and others had responded to an IOC statement Tuesday saying “any speculation at this moment would be counter-productive.”
Then there was Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe saying they would overcome the virus and hold the Tokyo Games. “I want to hold the Olympics and Paralympics perfectly, as proof that the human race will conquer the new coronavirus,” Abe said.
A week ago, it seemed the International Skating Union was hellbent on having the 2020 World Championships in Montreal despite concerns. Then Quebec public health officials intervened to cancel the competition.
Stefanidi summarized the issues for athletes when telling Reuters, “The stadiums have been closed for a week. We may get a special permit to get in and train. But how can you train there, touching the same equipment and surfaces? And what about team sports, or gymnastics, or swimming?”
Stefanidi, a 2012 NCAA champion at Stanford, lobbied the IOC to show concern for athletes’ health.
“It is good to say that in four months it will all be fine,” she said. “But what about now? I want to see what they do about now.”
Don’t hold your breath.