Tokyo Olympics Postponed to 2021

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that the 2020
Summer Olympics will be postponed as the coronavirus shuts down daily life
around the world.

The IOC said the Tokyo Games "must be rescheduled to a date beyond
2020, but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the
athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international
community."

IOC President Thomas Bach and Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo spoke
on the phone on the morning of March 24. They, along with officials from the
IOC and Japan's organizing committee, agreed to make the decision.

Other Olympics – 1916, 1940 and 1944 – have been canceled because of
war, but none has ever been postponed.

The decision comes as a relief to the 11,000 or so potential Olympic

athletes who no longer have to train under near-impossible conditions.

One reason the IOC took longer to make the decision was because it
wanted to figure out logistics. Many of the arenas, stadiums and hotels are
under contract for games to be held from July 24 to August 7. It's possible to
change those arrangements, but it will be expensive. Tokyo has already
spent a reported $28 billion on the games.

For weeks, it was becoming increasingly clear that it would no longer be

possible to start the games on July 24. Olympic committees in Canada and
Australia were saying they either would not, or could not, send a team to
Tokyo in July. World Athletics and the three biggest sports in the United
States – swimming, track and gymnastics – were also calling for the games
to be postponed.

As recently as March 22, the IOC was saying it would take up to four weeks
to reach a decision. Four weeks ended up being two days.
Discussion
1. What are your thoughts on the IOC's decision to postpone the
2020 Summer Olympics?

I think this decision of IOC is acceptable and reasonable because it

can help to stop the virus spreading around the world.

2. How do you imagine most Olympic athletes feel about this

decision? Please explain your answer.

I could imagine that most of the athletes must feel disappointed

and frustrated. Many athletes do a lot of practices every day just
want to show off their hardworking outcomes to the world in Olympic
Games. Some of them even want to break the past record and
create a new result to prove their effort is worthy. When athletes
can’t attend Olympic Games just because of the virus, they must feel
extremely sad.

3. What Olympic events does your country usually perform well in?
Why do you think this is the case?

In my country, athletes usually perform well in individual sports

games such as single table tennis, single badminton and single
diving. However, people seldom do well for the teamwork sports
games, like football, basketball and handball. The reason of it may
be related to our culture and educational policy in our country. The
most obvious characteristic of people in our own country should be
selfish and people always don’t work as a team, but work
individually. People have no idea how to share things and cooperate
with others to win the games, but want to do it on their own. That’s
why athletes can do well in some single sports games.

4. What Olympic events would you most like to attend? Why?

I would like to attend the double player badminton event because I

like playing badminton the most. Also, I would like to attend the track
and field events. Since I could run and have a long jump with other
South Africa athletes, I could experience how amazing and how fast
they are.

5. What do you imagine are the least popular Olympic events? Why
do you think so?
I don’t agree that there are the least popular Olympic events
because everybody is passionate in each game. There are different
athletes from different countries to join different events and the
athletes practice for years, so I think every event can be counted as
the most popular games.

Further Discussion
1. Did you play sports as a kid? If so, how did you feel when your
games were cancelled?

I played badminton and I used to run in the past. I would feel very unhappy
and angry when I noticed my games were cancelled.

2. What would you say are the most popular sports in your country?
Are you interested in them?

I would say the most popular sports in my country would be table tennis. In
fact, I’m not quite interested in it because it’s hard to play and it’s so boring
for me.

3. When was the last time you attended a sporting event? Did you
enjoy it?
The last sporting event was occurred in five years ago. (When I was an
University students) I enjoyed it totally because I knew that we might have
no time to have a PE lesson with classmates in the future.

4. What athletes would you most like to meet? Why?

I would like to meet basketball and football athletes because they are so
handsome and famous, just like the basketball player Lebron James, the
basketball player Stephen Curry and the football player Cristiano Ronaldo.

5. Are there any sports that you find boring to watch? Please explain
your answer.

I think table tennis, weightlifting, judo and wrestling are so boring to watch.
It is because I’m not familiar with the rules of these games; I don’t have a
motivation to watch it for hours.