According to a member of the International Olympic Committee, the 2020 Olympics will be postponed and should happen sometime in 2021
What many expected could be about to happen, as everything indicates that 2020 Olympics will even be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The information was confirmed on Monday (23) by Dick Pound, one of the International Olympic Committee (COI), for the newspaper USA Today.
It is not possible to enter the information with absolute certainty because the Olympic Committee has not yet answered any questions about whether the information said by Pound is indeed correct, but it is difficult to imagine that a Committee member would confirm this information to a newspaper without the matter already being decided internally. .
For the time being, it is not yet known what the future of the event will be, but according to Pound it is most likely that it will be postponed to 2021.
According to him, the only thing that is already decided by the Committee is that the pandemic of COVID-19 in the it will have come to an end by the 24th of July (date when the competition should start) and that the postponement to the next year was the best way out.
Speech echoes what Yasuhiro Yamashita, president of Japan Olympic Committee (at the headquarters of the Olympics that would take place this year) said Reuters this Monday (23), when he said he was considering postponing the event as the best option for everyone.
But what if the Olympics were not postponed?
This year's event should bring together more than 11 thousand athletes from 206 countriesEven if the International Olympic Committee chose to ignore the pandemic and keep the Olympics going smoothly, this year's edition would probably be quite lacking, this is because some countries have already stated that they would not be part of the competition if it really happened.
On March 20, the United States swimming team had already sent a letter requesting that the event in Tokyo be postponed to the country's Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and it is possible that many athletes in the sport would refuse to participate in the event if it would happen normally.
More drastic measures were taken by the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which on March 22 vehemently announced that no athlete in the country would participate in the Olympic Games in Tokyo if the event was not postponed.
Shortly thereafter, the Australian Olympic Committee made the same decision, and unanimously voted that no athlete in the country would participate in the event if it took place this year.
One of the main reasons for so many requests for postponement that Japan, host of the Olympic Games this year, one of the countries with the highest number of cases of COVID-19, is a huge fear among athletes and officials that there is no way to prevent the virus. do not be contracted during the event.
Fourth time in history
This is the first time that an Olympics has been postponed for a reason other than war (Image: EFE)This is not the first time that an Olympics has been canceled or postponed due to a worldwide disaster, but the first time that the reason was not a war.
The other three times that the event was canceled were in 1916 (because of the First World War, in 1940 and in 1944 (both because of the Second World War).
With the confirmation of 206 countries competing in 339 events, the Olympic Games this year would be attended by more than 11 thousand athletes in total, in addition to a few million spectators who would leave from all corners of the world to go to Japan to see the competition closely.
With so many people involved, it is clear why a pandemic period may not be the best time for an event of this size.
Source: CNet
