Tokyo 2020 Postponed
- bluke75
- Mar 25, 2020
- 2 min read
“Sport is not the most important thing right now, preserving human life is. It is essential, therefore, that all steps are taken to try to limit the spread of this disease.”
-Andrew Parsons, International Paralympic Committee president
Tokyo 2020 has been postponed until summer of 2021. This news was released Tuesday, March 24th and is no doubt taking the world by storm. Reactions range from support for the decision to disappointment. These three women above, Gabriele Cunningham, Chari Hawkins, and Allison Halverson were training for Tokyo 2020 and for at least one of them it was set to be their first Olympics. But even with the discouraging news they support the IOC’s decision to put the athletes’ health first. Others are not as quick to back up the decision, for the fans The Olympics was the light at the end of the tunnel, something to keep hopes high in the midst of COVID-19. Signs were that the drastic spreading of the virus would have stopped by this summer and sports could once again return to our screens. There are always two sides to every story however, and this is not an exception. In favor of postponing The Olympics 2020 is that COVID-19 does not have a known end date, and the extra time will allow for athletes to train once again when there are no longer closures of gyms and training sites. This also gives time for the many Olympic qualifiers that would not have been able to take place had Tokyo 2020 remained this summer. On our Instagram page a poll was run as to whether or not our followers believed the games should have been kept or postponed; 100% replied that postponing was the best decision and the majority of America seems to agree.
*Also, you should follow our page for updates and to be included in future polls :)
The negative effects that cannot avoid being felt are all the previous athletes’ training set on competing for summer 2020. Will their work be lost? Also, the question of how many will chose to step down with this news has to be asked. In addition to this, who will now be competing that would not have been otherwise? The set of athletes competing in 2021 will no doubt be quite different than who we would have seen in 2020, but despite the change many remain determined to use the additional year of training to their benefit.
Read up on the major decision on ESPN here:
With mid-April in sight and many hoping for the end of isolation soon, how was this huge decision reached? How will changing the recognizable year of 2020 to 2021 affect the Games’ marketing?
BBC.com comments on this and declares that it will remain Tokyo 2020 despite the year change:
What do you think of the title remaining the same? Comment your reactions below!
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