Even so close to Opening Ceremony of Tokyo Olympics, there is time to avoid having fools rush into decision on their fate

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Even so close to Opening Ceremony of Tokyo Olympics, there is time to avoid having fools rush into decision on their fate


As of early this week, there were 3.3 million deaths worldwide attributed to the Covid-19 virus,

And yet the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee continue to set the tables for a July global party that 59 percent of the Japanese population wants cancelled, according to polling done last Friday through Sunday.

In that poll, postponement was not an option. Another poll in April showed 70 percent of the population wanted the Tokyo Summer Games either cancelled or postponed again, as they had been from 2020 to 2021.

Make no mistake about it: the Tokyo Olympics are in essence a shindig, a giant, made-for-TV, ATM of a sports festival, sort of a wedding reception on steroids. And think of how many wedding receptions and family celebrations have been cancelled or postponed in the face of a pandemic still raging out of control in some of the world’s most populous countries, notably India and Brazil.

The preparations and regulations necessary in the hope of keeping the Olympics from becoming a feast for the coronavirus mean they will be essentially a joyless party, a wedding with no food or dancing, a festival without the cultural interactions that are supposed to make the Olympics more than just another sporting event.

No foreign spectators. Maybe no domestic ones, either. Strict distancing and masking rules. Little freedom of movement for everyone directly involved.

Is that the youth of the world assembling to celebrate the Olympics, as called for in the ritual appeal at the Closing Ceremony of the previous Games? Only if they stay two meters apart.

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At Beijing Winter Games, now just a year away, figure skating will be a morning and evening affair (as you read here last March)

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At Beijing Winter Games, now just a year away, figure skating will be a morning and evening affair (as you read here last March)

Under usual circumstances, the day marking one year to go until the next Olympics directs a substantial amount of attention toward the upcoming Games.

But there is nothing usual about the current circumstances of a world turned inside out by the Covid-19 pandemic. So the next Olympics is not the 2022 Winter Games in China, where competition begins with curling Feb. 2, 2022, which is one year from today (the Opening Ceremony is a year from Friday).

Next up is the postponed 2020 Tokyo Summer Games. Beijing 2022 seems much further off than it is.

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For many Olympic-related sports bodies in the USA, surviving fiscal impact of pandemic would be like winning a gold

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For many Olympic-related sports bodies in the USA, surviving fiscal impact of pandemic would be like winning a gold

U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee chief executive Sarah Hirshland sounded the storm warning last week, in a virtual staff meeting as well as a letter and Q-and-A fact sheet to the USOPC’s constituents.

Hirshland did it again Tuesday in an athlete town meeting call that a person who listened to it described as “pretty much the same doom and gloom.”

She told of USOPC budget cuts of 10-to-20 percent that could include staff cuts and already include voluntary salary cuts of 20 percent (Hirshland) and 10 percent (the other eight top executives). And then there was the ominous passage, about the impact on the USOPC if the postponed-until-2021 Tokyo Olympics have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The impact of a cancellation would be devastating to our athletes, first and foremost, but also to our financial health and stability,” said the FAQ sheet, a copy of which was obtained by Globetrotting. “We would survive such a scenario, but the impact would be severe.”

The USOPC can survive because it has an endowment in excess of $200 million it could use in a “`worst-case’ scenario.” That has not yet become the situation, the FAQ said, but it reach that level if Tokyo 2020 does not take place – a possibility evoked by two prominent members of Japan’s medical community in the last 10 days.

Cancellation would create a much more dire situation for the National Governing Bodies that help train and support the athletes who become part of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams. Many would go from weathering the storm to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

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Update: ISU Congress postponed to 2021, decision upcoming on rescheduling 2020 figure skating worlds (very likely, "no”), plus my exclusive info on bigger future worlds

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Update: ISU Congress postponed to 2021, decision upcoming on rescheduling 2020 figure skating worlds (very likely, "no”), plus my exclusive info on bigger future worlds

This week, there will definitely be a decision on one major International Skating Union event cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic.

That will be followed soon after by a decision on another – even if the fate of the latter, the 2020 World Figure Skating Championships, seems pretty much a foregone conclusion already.

The ISU asked its members to vote on the future of the organization’s biennial policy-making Congress, which had been scheduled for this June 8-12 in Phuket, Thailand. The ballot offered three choices: 1) postponement until June 2021; 2) definite cancellation; 3) abstention.

Votes are due today. Once they are in, the ISU Council will meet by teleconference to discuss the result and matters related to the 2020 worlds, the 2020-21 season and seasons after that.

No 2020 worlds and more skaters at future worlds are involved.

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Staying afloat financially: for Olympic organizations, loans may be short-term fix in uncertain times

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Staying afloat financially: for Olympic organizations, loans may be short-term fix in uncertain times

In these days of near total uncertainty about the impact and duration of the coronavirus pandemic on our lives, even moments of clarity are lost in the blur of the big, frightening picture.

We know the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games now are supposed to begin July 23, 2021. Emphasis on supposed to. Not only a Cassandra would look at the pandemic’s uncontrolled and growing scope and prophesy that there is a good chance those Olympics will not take place then – or ever.

Especially given this from Allen Sills, the National Football League’s chief medical officer, in an NFL.com story Thursday: "As long as we're still in a place where when a single individual tests positive for the virus that you have to quarantine every single person who was in contact with them in any shape, form or fashion, then I don't think you can begin to think about reopening a team sport." And the story continued with Sills saying it is too early to think about dealing with large groups of fans until a vaccine is available.

Yet because trying to look forward is far more rewarding, especially in terms of mental health, all the players hoping for a 2020/1 (or 2020One) Summer Games are searching for ways to get there.

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