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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IOC vice-president DeFrantz says she has no official word yet on 2020 postponement

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IOC vice-president DeFrantz says she has no official word yet on 2020 postponement

International Olympic Committee vice president Anita DeFrantz of the United States said Monday she had not yet received any official word that a final decision on any postponement of the 2020 Olympics has been made.

“If that is the case, then you know more than a vice-president of the International Olympic Committee,” DeFrantz said via telephone from her home in Santa Monica, Calif. “It would be news to me.”

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U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee needs to show it cares for athletes by speaking truth to IOC (petty) power

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U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee needs to show it cares for athletes by speaking truth to IOC (petty) power

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee has deservedly faced withering criticism for its failure to act on knowledge that former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar had sexually abused hundreds of athletes under his care.

While that criticism has largely been directed at the USOPC’s former top leadership, the current regime also should not escape condemnation for its amoral legal posturing to avoid liability as part of a shameful settlement proposal with the Nassar survivors.

The overall picture is that of an organization thrilled by a California appellate court ruling last October that the USOPC did not have a legal responsibility to protect athletes rather than that of an organization that should live by a moral responsibility to do exactly that.

Now the USOPC has an opportunity to do something that won’t cleanse the horrible ethical stain of its actions and inactions in the Nassar situation but will show it actually cares about athletes.

The USOPC must publicly tell the International Olympic Committee that it has failed both athletes and the world at large by continuing to take a full-steam-ahead approach to the 2020 Summer Olympics in the face of the global coronavirus pandemic.

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Time for IOC to drop Pollyanna act and tell everyone there may be no Olympics in 2020

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Time for IOC to drop Pollyanna act and tell everyone there may be no Olympics in 2020

There are some 11,000 athletes hoping to compete at the Summer Olympics scheduled to open July 24 in Tokyo.

At this point, all those athletes should be able to (choose a biblical or mythological metaphor):

*See the handwriting on the wall.

*Feel the sword of Damocles above their heads.

And yet the president of the International Olympic Committee and the Prime Minister of Japan refuse to acknowledge publicly the possibility the 2020 Summer Games won’t take place in 2020 – or ever.

In their hubristic refrain that the Games will go, these alleged leaders provide unjustifiable encouragement to athletes whose preparation and qualification processes already have been severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

These athletes, who get an Olympic opportunity once every four years, deserve honesty, not self-interested, Panglossian avoidance of reality.

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Why L.A. 2028 might not be such a good deal - for the city or the IOC

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Why L.A. 2028 might not be such a good deal - for the city or the IOC

Now what for Los Angeles and a Summer Olympics it apparently won’t have until 2028?

For a number of reasons, an unprecedented 11-year wait between being named host city for the Games and staging them is fraught with potential pitfalls.

Costs will rise.  Contracts may need renegotiation.  Opponents will have more time to make their case.  The political landscape in Los Angeles could change dramatically.

Such issues need to be addressed because all signs currently point to the International Olympic Committee deciding in July to award both the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games rather than have Los Angeles and Paris contend for the lone prize they originally thought was at stake, the 2024 Olympics.

And, although this is less certain, the conventional wisdom now is that the IOC will not be smart enough to see the obvious reasons for giving 2024 to Los Angeles rather than Paris.

 

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