Cancellation of 2020 Olympics Until 2021 Due to Coronavirus Pandemic
Due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the 2020 Summer Olympics have been postponed. This year’s cancellation marks the fifth time that the Olympics have ever been canceled in their 124-year history. The 2020 Olympics were scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8 in Tokyo, Japan but have been postponed until 2021. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) made the decision to postpone the Olympics due to multiple countries, including Canada and Australia, withdrawing their athletes from the Olympics in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The question of whether or not the Olympics would be postponed and rescheduled in light of COVID-19 had been circulating the news for months before the IOC’s decision. Many athletes and fans pushed for the cancelation, and have publicly applauded the IOC’s decision.
“With the rapid spread of COVID-19, I think anything but postponement would have been the wrong decision,” senior Lily Garcia said. “Seeing how rapidly the virus was spreading, any other solution for the Olympics — like events held without fans — would have still spread the virus, so canceling it was a smart [decision on the IOC’s part].”
Many athletes spend the four-year period between each Olympics improving their skills in hopes of qualifying and competing in an upcoming Olympics. With the Olympics’ cancellation, athletes, their families and hopeful audience members began wondering whether or not the athletes who qualified for the Olympics would still be able to compete in 2021. To best accommodate all athletes, the IOC stated that those who qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics would be allowed to compete in the 2021 rescheduling.
“I am glad the IOC made the decision to allow those who qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics to also compete in the 2021 rescheduling,” sophomore Yumin Kim said. “I, and probably many others, believe that it would have been unfair to someone who may have qualified for this year’s Olympics to not be allowed [to compete] in 2021.”
However, IOC’s decision faced criticism because key Olympic qualifying events in 2020 such as track and field races were canceled or cut short due to COVID-19, giving the advantage to those who had participated in earlier qualifying events. This caused disappointment among those who completely lost their chance to qualify.
“I think it is unfair that some people will not have the chance to compete in the Olympics just because some days were open for athletes to qualify, while other days were canceled due to the coronavirus,” Kim said. “[As a result of this cancellation,] someone who could have qualified will not be able to compete in the Olympics [due to their event being canceled].”
With many sport leagues indefinitely being canceled, like the National Basketball League, Major League Baseball and various others, people around the world feared that the Olympics would also be canceled altogether. Regardless, many around the world are still thankful that the Olympics will be rescheduled to 2021 and look forward to watching them when they occur.
“Normally, my family has had a long-standing tradition of supporting the Philippines in the Olympics, along with having parties to watch the Olympics,” junior Ralph Torres said. “Despite the cancellation affecting many people’s lives and cultures, I am glad that the Olympics will still be happening.”
