Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 129, April 2020 | Page 36

SPORT MAN
Says
By
Manfred Seidler
The Cost of Postponing the Olympics
The COVID-19 Coronavirus has left the 2020 sporting calendar in ruins as many events have had to cancel or postpone,
including the Tokyo Olympic Games scheduled to begin in July, and now athletes, administrators, sponsors and media are
starting to count the costs.
The reality is that globally the 2020 season was done and dusted by mid-March.
International events were cancelling and postponing left, right and centre, purely
because they simply could not guarantee a date in coming months, as no-one
knows when the COVID-19 pandemic will run its course. This, in turn, meant that
athletes could no longer plan and prepare properly for the Games, had they still
been scheduled for 24 July to 9 August.
Many countries, including South Africa, have gone into total lockdown, and while
athletes are finding unique ways to stay positive, healthy and fit, being stuck at
home does seriously curtail training and preparation, with no access to the track or
gym, and no opportunity to compete. Athletes use competitions in the build-up to a
major event to test fitness and strategy, and to peak at the right time for the major
event, so the Tokyo Games would have suffered badly had they still taken place in
2020, because most athletes would not have been competition-ready and able to
deliver on their true potential.
Feeling the Pinch
The year is actually a double write-off for many athletes, because they will
suffer financially as well. The top athletes make a living from competing on the
international circuit, and of course, a chance at Olympic glory would increase their
earning potential on the world stage. Now that is all gone, and for someone like
SA’s number one sprinter, Akani Simbine, things look bleak.
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ISSUE 129 APRIL 2020 / www.modernathlete.co.za
With no end in sight to the
pandemic, and not being allowed
out of the house, Akani cannot
train… and even if he could, for
what? In tennis, the Wimbledon
tournament scheduled to take place
from 28 June to 11 July has been
cancelled, so what are the chances
that athletics meets scheduled for
June and July won’t follow suit?
Also, all sorts of theories are making
the rounds in South Africa about
the lockdown being extended, and
all that insecurity about what may
or may not happen can only have a
negative effect on athletes.
Some are still potentially going to
be OK, such as Lesego Stephen
Mokoka. Although he has lost
out on appearance fees and/or
potential prize monies after the Two
Oceans Marathon and FNB Cape
Town 12 ONERUN events were
cancelled, he has gone into an early
winter mileage training phase on
the treadmill in the hope that the
road season will reopen around
September or October. Several
major road races around the world
Akani Simbine
T
he writing had already been on the wall for a while before the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) finally announced this past month that the
Olympic Games of 2020 would be postponed to the same dates in 2021,
from late July to early August. Many felt the IOC was just being stubborn and self-
serving in taking their time to do the inevitable and postpone the Tokyo Games,
and let’s be honest, many athletes worldwide had already written off the season.