The year 2020 will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the most chaotic years in all of sports history. The Covid-19 pandemic triggered the domino effect, as sport event cancellations followed one by one until the world stopped completely. Some hoped that the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo would be an exception and that the biggest sports event in the world would maybe still happen in a smaller, more private scenario. After countless virtual meetings between the Olympic committee and the Japanese government, the final decision was made. The Summer Olympic games of 2020 in Tokyo were postponed. If you’re interested in more details about how the decision came to be click here: https://www.sportni-portal.com/poletne-olimpijske-igre-2020-misterij-v-tokiju-posts.
What happened next?
But this isn’t the first time a sporting event of this magnitude was postponed or cancelled. The Olympic games were already cancelled 5 times in the last century. All of them between 1916 and 1944, obviously because of the World wars that were raging through Europe and the rest of the globe. But the city of Tokyo remained hopeful, as the light was shunned with some positive news and possible new dates ahead.
After various discussions with the World health organization, the new start date of the Summer Olympic games 2020 was set for July 23rd 2021. The event itself will still be branded as a 2020 event due to unfortunate events. Some qualification events and tournaments for the games had to be postponed for the beginning of 2021 and some of the rules redefined. The qualifying events will take place if the COVID epidemic is under control and if the health organizations in cooperation with the local government bodies, will be able to give the events the green light.
The postponing of the summer Olympic games had an immediate effect on the next winter games well, as qualifications tournaments for winter sports like ice hockey, were moved quite late into 2021. The age of participation in sports like boxing and soccer were also increased by 1 year. The Olympic committee decided to not discriminate against athletes that would be, through no fault of their own, forced to forfeit their place in the games, because of the age limit.
The financial chaos with no end in sight
The organizational chaos, accommodations, tv coverage rights and the rest of re-arrangements are just a few of the worries that the city of Tokyo is facing at the moment. The amount of financial damage of postponement of the summer games is calculated to be around 6 billion euros. Right away the Japanese government came to the rescue, trying to save the Japanese capital from financial ruin.
There are also other complications worth mentioning, regarding the Olympic venues and some of the sports arenas where the events would suppose to be taken place. Since no one expected the games would be delayed, most of the arenas are already set to host other events and are the organizers are now in a difficult position, where they have to postpone or move dozen of events in 2021. The other big issue, that is now filling the Japanese media is the 20 skyscraper Olympic village, that was built for the accommodation of athletes and their teams during the games. Most of the apartments in the buildings were also sold in advance and would suppose to be transferred to the new owners after the games at the end of August 2020.
So you can see how most of the new owners are not happy, that they will have to wait at least one more year, to take possession of their investment. The government will have to get involved or else the city of Tokyo is set for another big scandal.
Tokyo 2021 will have consequences
The ripple effect of postponing the games was felt just a few months after the decision of the Olympic committee to postpone the event. The world athletics championship held by the city of Eugene in the U.S. was immediately postponed to 2022. The European basketball federation FIBA was also one of the first organizations that made adjustments to its schedule, which also meant they would be moving the dates set for the European basketball championship in 2021.
The international swimming federation FIMA has also announced, that they will most likely be postponing their competitions to next year. Tour de France is also re-scheduling and it will begin one week earlier to not clash with the Olympics. Therefore the cyclers will have 6 days between the finish of the tour and the start of the race to the iconic Mount Fuji. If other organizations will follow is yet to be determined, but the Tokyo aftermath will undoubtedly be felt in all branches of professional sport.
Interesting facts about the summer Olympics
The postponed event is set to begin in July 23rd and will end on August 8th. In the 17 days, Tokyo will host 339 events in 33 sports. We will be able to see some sports for the first time in history as well. Karate is one of them. Since Japan is known to be the home of Karate, there’s no better time to move the sport to the Olympic discipline. Skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing are also seeing the Olympic fire for the first time in history.
The first surfing competition will be held on Tsurigisaki beach and it will last 4 days, maybe a day more if we consider perimitable wave factors. Baseball and softball will be the two returning sports, that were dropped after the Beijing 2008 games. Japan will be one of the favourites in both sports making the comeback, but they will for surely face hard match-up against the last winners, the United States. The games will close on the 8th of August with the traditional men’s marathon, starting at 7 am, which will be held in Sapporo to avoid the heat waves that are expected to hit Tokyo in August.
A lot of tickets were already sold in advance, but the question of the number of attendance remains open and will be determined depending on the health situation at that period. If all goes well, a year from now, we’ll be watching who gets to dominate their disciplines and take bring the gold medal back home.
