No Olympic Games in 2020

By Guillaume Mahot

The Coronavirus disease 2019, also known as COVID-19, has finally gotten the best of the 2020 Olympic Games. Planned in Tokyo this summer from July 24 to August 9 and involving more than thirty disciplines, these games, that Japan had already held in 1964, are going to be postponed to 2021. It is a news that only came true this week, but the decision actually seemed inescapable given the current crisis the whole world is coping with.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), funded in 1894 and presided by German Thomas Bach, made the decision early this week along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. According to Abe, it was him who proposed this alternative to the Committee, which was approved by Bach. While the IOC was still hoping to maintain the Games in the past few weeks, logics eventually prevailed. For both actors, Japan and the International Olympic Committee, it was a hard decision to make since the economic consequences will be tough to overcome, especially for Japan, whose infrastructures were already prepared for the event. But the pandemic does not care.

It was also a major choice to postpone the Games only, instead of cancelling them (the cancellation is a danger, we can call it like that, that may hit other competitions and other sports, possibly leading to dramatic aftermath for clubs and so). In order to make them happen, one moment had to be found in the drastic sports calendar of the next few years. 2022, for instance, was impossible because of two main world tournaments: the Winter Games in Pekin and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

If we can finish with a positive note, let us say that 2021 will be a good year for sports lovers, with the Tokyo Games so, but also the Africa Cup of Nations and the Euro…

Africa Global News Publication