adminStanley Mutoya Special Correspondent
NEWS of the postponement of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games scheduled for Tokyo, Japan, to 2021 was received with great relief all over the world.
Athletes, coaches, sports administrators, broadcasters and sponsors had been living on their edge with mounting anxiety over the status of the Games as signs from Japan seemed to suggest that cancellation and postponement were remote options. The announcement on March 24, 2020, that the Games would be postponed therefore brought finality to the seemingly perpetual anxiety that hovered over all concerned parties.
While the postponement made health and safety sense under the current circumstances, when the world is mercilessly battered by the novel coronavirus pandemic, the implications of the postponement to the Olympic-bound athletes present very interesting reading.
Away from the obvious financial impact where most athletes’ incomes are under stern test, especially from sponsorship, there are a whole host of other challenges for athletes as a result of this postponement.
The postponement of the Olympic Games to 2021 creates another challenge with regards to some of the biggest events being the athletics (track and field) World Championships scheduled for August 2021 and Swimming World Championships scheduled for July 2021.
There is also the Football Euro Championships scheduled for June 2021 being part of the mix which needs the world sports leaders to engage all their faculties to unpack as there are serious sponsorship deals, hosting agreements and TV rights issues, among others that pose a challenge to be unlocked.
The athletes’ training and periodisation plans also gets affected to a large extent as some had already made their training tapering and peak fitness plans in readiness for the qualifiers for the 2020 Olympic Games. Apart from the additional cost of restarting the training programme all over, there is no guarantee that athletes will retain their levels of fitness even if the qualification period is extended to suit the new competition dates.
There is also a similar disadvantage to those athletes that had already qualified on their ability to maintain their peak performance, more so as training has been adversely affected limiting athletes mostly to individual home-based fitness workouts. The quality of their performance therefore demands extra effort to regain the same performance projections as those made for the 2020 Games.
From a psychological point of view, there is a school of thought that argues that the postponement sort of deflated the athletes’ mental preparedness, making them disengage. Much of the athlete’s performance is based on their mental strength and state of preparedness.
Most athletes may not get the benefit of attaining the same mental preparedness as they had already engaged for the 2020 Games. This calls for a lot of socio-psycho support to be directed towards athletes in order to sustain and revive their mental strength and preparedness.
The role of sports science in the performance of the athletes can never be overlooked. Aspects such as diet and nutrition which relate to such protocols as nutrient loading and diet management have an effect on the athletes.
The cost of doing it all over again against the fact that the anticipated goals were not attained after all may create some mental lethargy that is likely to see some athletes failing to reach the anticipated performance standards as they were going to attain had the Games been held in 2020. Some athletes’ sponsorship deals are designed for renewal after every four years in line with Olympic Cycles.
There is uncertainty on whether sponsors are willing to extend stimulus interventions to buffer the athletes until after the Olympic Games in 2021.
That leaves athletes’ attention being diverted from focusing on training to worrying about their welfare and sustenance thereby affecting their levels of performance or chances of qualifying for the Games. One factor that cannot be held constant though is athlete ageing. Where one was going to compete as a 23-year-old, now they will be competing as a 24-year-old. There are some metabolism and physiological process that cannot be held constant but have a bearing and restrictions on the performance of any individual.
The remote impact of the pandemic on the rest of the sports movement, not just for those attempting to qualify for the Tokyo Games are very real. As is known, the Olympics have been cancelled because of the world wars in 1916, 1940 and 1944 and have carried on in the tense climate after the terrorist attacks during the 1972 Munich Olympics where 17 people died as a result.
This may have a bearing on National Olympic Committees funding from Olympic Solidarity which is derived predominantly from Olympic Games Broadcasting and sponsorship rights.
To date, already the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are reported to have generated record domestic sponsorship revenues of more than US$3 billion. That does not include partnerships with Japanese companies Toyota, Bridgestone and Panasonic and others such as South Korea’s Samsung who have separate deals with the IOC worth hundreds of millions.
The postponement, on the other hand, provides a lifeline for those athletes that were yet to qualify as they have an opportunity to recover from injury and to reach peak fitness in time for the re-scheduled qualifying competitions.
Even those athletes that had already qualified, they have a rare opportunity to plan and periodise their training in order to peak again in time for the rescheduled Games.
The AUSC Region 5 has scoped the above risks in their analysis of the anticipated impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the region’s athletes.
The Region is closely monitoring the developments in order to make pertinent interventions that ensure member countries have measures meant to stimulate chances of the athletes qualifying for the rescheduled Games.
The Region’s Troika of Ministers gave themselves up to July 2020 to re-engage and consider appropriate and credible measures that guarantee athletes’ future under a controlled and sustainable framework.
We all remain hopeful that the pandemic will dissipate sooner rather than later before the sports industry is knocked down to the canvas for a long time to come.
In the meantime, the call is for all sportsmen and sportswomen to remain safe and keep healthy respecting the guidelines by governments and other health authority during the subsistence of this pandemic.
Online Reporter