Clint Lamb
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The COVID-19 pandemic has already claimed several sporting events since its arrival at the beginning of 2020. Granted, some sports have still been able to crown champions, but there still have been plenty of sporting casualties.
The most recent event could be the Tokyo Olympics, which was originally set for last summer and was rescheduled for July of this year. The Japanese government has reportedly accepted that the international event will not take place.
According to Richard Lloyd Parry with The Times, it has already been privately concluded that it will be canceled and that the focus will soon shift towards Tokyo trying to secure the games in 2032.
The Japanese government has privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics will have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus, and the focus is now on securing the Games for the city in the next available year, 2032 https://t.co/bsuB9wMt30
— The Times (@thetimes) January 21, 2021
“No one wants to be the first to say so, but the consensus is that it’s too difficult,” a source told Parry in the article. “Personally, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Imagine being an athlete who has spent years training for this moment. Then imagine that being taken away from you even though other sporting events continue around the world. This isn’t a “see you next year” type of situation.
Granted, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee is saying all the right things right now. They released the official statement later on Thursday:
(3/3) We have not received any information suggesting the Games will not happen as planned, and our focus remains on the health and preparedness of Team USA athletes ahead of the Games this summer."
— USOPC News (@USOPC_News) January 22, 2021
That’s great and all, but what’s going on behind the scenes is what will ultimately matter. If Tokyo or the Japanese government don’t feel comfortable hosting the games in 2021, then move the event. Give these athletes a chance to compete.
Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.
Sucks for the Athletes. I’m not sure why something couldn’t be done where they could compete though? Maybe have all the swimming events in Florida. Have the Basketball in Australia, etc etc. it could work. They need to call Greg Sankey and the NFL leaders to explain how it can be done. Quit listening to the CoronaBro losers that write for USA Today, yahoo sports etc. etc. Nothing has been normal in sports for a year, get creative and make the events happen.
That being said there needs to be a push to get the 2022 Winter Olympics out of China. No world stage event should be in China. Now is time for the world to stand up against a modern day NAZI like regime. It’s now or never.
Put the 2022 Winter Olympics in Japan.
2022 is the year of the World Cup in Qatar too. Another slave labor country. We just need to not watch those competitions and tank the tv ratings
These are all finely tuned athletic machines at the peak of their health. There is a solution. Hell, they could go the route of the NBA and make a bubble if they are so worried about it.
Likely more to do with maximizing value from tourism than safety for athletes otherwise, they would move forward with bubbles. Filling stadiums and hotels are a huge part of why countries bid so enthusiastically.
UAE would be over the moon to have it.
Luxury hotels in Dubai, world class facilities and they don’t need the revenue from fans.
How is it the UFC is that much smarter than the IOC?
UFC is a private for profit business run by people trying to make money. The IOC is run by a bunch of sinecured pseudo-intellectual pajama boys who take their marching orders from similar folks in the “international community.”
Entirely correct Mr. Williams! The IOC is a collection of graft collecting virtue signalers who package up athletics as their ticket to nice stays at the best places, super luncheons, and hefty paychecks….all on the backs of the athletes.
I don’t care if there are no Olympics, forever.
I feel bad for the athletes. That said I can only imagine the moral preening, virtue signaling, politics and propaganda from those in charge and unfortunately from many of the athletes. The globalists love the Olympics. As such, I will shed not a single tear if it’s cancelled.
This is kinda where I find myself landing. In a post Trump world where all entertainment is politicized, one has to assume that the flag-waving of the Olympics will come with a massive agenda regarding what the flag must stand for. So NBC will give you an endless series of back stories about the athletes’ victimhood and diversity, maybe the occasional redemption of some Southern white archer. Think I’m crazy? Watch. I won’t.
Not acceptable. Eight years is way too long to go without a summer Olympic games. Many of the athletes who have worked their whole lives to compete in the Olympics this year will be over-the-hill by 2024. The Olympics needs to happen now. If there are no fans in attendance, so be it.
At the end of the day, it’s a money-making enterprise, whether they would admit to that or not. And if they hold the games and there are no spectators, either because of regulation or people just don’t want to risk it, they’d lose an unbelievable amount of money, and that’s ultimately what the decision will come down to (which means, almost certainly, that they ain’t gonna happen…)
China plays a very long game when it comes to taking over the planet. Japan is an enemy of China and perhaps the virus was some stupid attempt at damaging Japan’s olympics. And hoping their winter olympics would appear as the ‘come-back’ the world waited for.
imagine American athletes not competing in Japan, but competing in China? The so-called Biden Presidency will surely keep Americans home like Jimmy the Carter did in 1980.
The ONLY way to watch the Olympics is stealing it via live-feed and VPN. Watch the feeds through CBC (Canada) or BBC websites using a VPN to disguise your location. The live feeds will show you everything you actually want to see at the Olympics – the prelims as well as the finals, and sports that do not make it to the PrimeTime coverage – without any commentary or woke bullshit.
It is so much better to experience the Olympics without every goddamn human interest tale, and endless swimming and gymnastics. Turns out there are other competitions too, but you wouldn’t know it from network coverage.
Since everything in the sporting world is politicized now, I don’t really care if the Olympics take place or not. And I have been to several. They used to be a blast to go to. Sad to see what this world has become.
The only thing I am interested in anymore is Women’s Gymnastics, and thank to Nasser and the Karolyis, that pretty much been eviscerated. I won’t miss them.
Outside of the occasionally competitive swim race, the Summer Olympics is terrible TV and just not that entertaining.
Watch the live feeds, there is a lot of great content. Skip network coverage altogether.