It is really a big deal that worlds largest sports event with thousands of top athletes is postponed.
The new dates of the games are yet to be decided but with current situation it seems a one year longing seems realistic.The Olympics commitee are considering July 2021 as the new dates for the game.
This turns out to be first such delay in 124 years of modern Olympics since the 1940 and 1944 games were cancelled due to world war 2.
The Coronavirus pandemic has already forced the postponments and cancellation of hundreds of major tournaments and sporting events including suspension for NBA,NHL and postponment of major football competition such as Euro 2020 and Copa America 2020.
What's Next
Economic View
Japan said that putting the games off would put its 12 billion dollar investment in risk. While they are yet to figure the loss due to postponment of the games.
The Bank of Japan estimated 33 million visitors were set to visit Tokyo in 2020 and aggregate construction investment associated with the Olympic Games will amount to a total of 10 trillion yen (about 92 billion dollars).
Name of the Games
President of Olympics commitee Thomas Bach declared that name of the games will remain Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics 2020. This move comes just to reduce the economic loss as Japan has already marketed and advertised it's games with the old dates.
What about Athletes
The athletes who had already qualified for the games before have been automatically qualified for the games next year also the aspirant athlete will have same no.of chances to qualify for games they had before the covid 19 outbreak.
Conclusion -
To be fair the decision was obvious since conducting the games in such uncertain situation was not an option.
Now that the decision is official the players will go back to drawing boards and can plan for there approach towards games next year.
This summer was supposed to be a culmination of hard work and life's dream, but taking a step back from competition to care for our countries and each other is the right thing to do. Athletes moment will wait until we can gather again safely. Hope this pandemic ends and sports lovers like me will get to watch those sporting actions we are desperately waiting for.
Rugved Joshi
