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.