January 24, 2021
An article (unsigned) in today's Guardian indicates that the IOC "is floating the idea" that athletes should get Covid vaccinations, so that they might attend the Olympic Games which are scheduled to begin July 23 in Tokyo. This has been voiced by Mo Farrah in the said article.
With Japan starting to show some serious upturns in Covid cases, this might be a moot question for an athlete to travel there in July, to live in close proximity, and to compete with thousands of other athletes from all 150 plus countries in the world. Talk about a super spreader event if those folks were unvaccinated. Even vaccinated, they could still be 'carriers'. With travel bans starting to be put back into place in this country (the US) keeping foreigners from South Africa and a number of other western European countries from coming to the US, it seems that without pre-Olympic vaccinations it will not be possible to hold an Olympic Games this year.
That brings one to the dilemma of giving up their place in the vaccination line, so that healthy young athletes can compete, Japanese O games investors, the TV networks, and big money sponsors can gain a platform to flog their wares, and all to breathe a sigh of relief that the show will go on. And it is not just those mentioned in the previous sentence but all those associated directly and indirectly with the Games, including the officials, the trainers, the stadium crews, the janitors, bus drivers, commissary personnel, the airlines pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, and on and on who will need to be vaccinated for that show to happen.
That said, would you be willing to give up your place in the vaccination line? Harder still would you be willing to tell your loved ones that they too need to step aside as well? An acquaintance once said that he would push his mother aside to finish one place higher in a road race. But I think he was only making a joke. That however might effectively be happening in this current dilemma. We've heard countless times that "We're all in this together." Now for some things we have to decide if we really are.
I will throw out this suggestion on how to make the Games happen on a very limited basis. In track and field we all know that only a very select few people will have any effect or influence on who walks up to the starting line or throwing circle or jump runway. That can be handled by competing remotely to get to the finals. People run prelims in their home countries or regions to qualify. Of course in many instances they will be running against the clock to advance. With technology and science, those preliminary performances could be 'graded' to allow for differences in wind velocity, temperature, humidity, and altitude to determine who advances to the finals. Of course there won't be the head to head competition that is seen in the prelims. But how many prelims do you remember compared to the finals in the Olympic Games? With pacing lights now available, the middle distance and distance events could involve athletes having to tell in advance what pace they are going to run in their prelim to give some input to how fast others should expect to be going. Of course that would put some gamesmanship into the event. Other sports will have a much more difficult time such as wrestling and boxing with person to person eliminations and team events. But track and field won't have that problem. Once you have your finalists determined you then bring them to Japan for their event. Unfortunately the pagentry, camaraderie, and all the other things that make up the Games won't be there, but there will be an event and a champion crowned, and someone's name put in the record books.
Some of our readers have had the honor to participate in and even win medals in the Olympics, and I'm certain they will see this question much differently than the rest of us. Some have coached Olympic medal winners. Some have witnessed the Games as spectators, and some like myself have never seen the Games in person. I'd be interested to hear everyone's point of view on this.
George Brose
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Years ago, at an Olympics I believe, after a race controversy, Sonia O'Sullivan's father made what I consider to be the most cogent statement ever made ever made about athletics. If I remember correctly, he said
"It's only sport, lads. We still have to get up and go to work in the morning".
The Olympics, important and lucrative as they can be, are suppose to be sport. People die from COVID-19
We all need to step back a bit and consider what is at stake.
Take care,
Tom Coyne
Interesting question. But I would vote for overall citizens to get the vaccine first.
To me the public is a bigger priority right now
Mike Waters
Bonnes réflexions au sujet du vaccin et des J.O. De TOKIO. Jose Sant
A very vexed question. I have always loved the very idea ( and ideals) of the Olympics and started my
interest as a 14 year old in London in 1948. I remember little of the details but have read Bob Phillips
great book about them. Did not have a chance to see any in person. Much ( sooo much) has changed
in the 73 years since then that it is hard to recognise the Games . I believe since around 1960 it has
lost its way and is now a massive showcase of much that is wrong with the world-OH let the poor
Russians play!!) Money is the driving force now. Whatever happened to Citius Fortis etc? There were
problems before that –1936 and Brundage and so forth . Since then virtually every sport ( and so called
sport) has their own World Championship and I really think that the Olympics have passed their best
by date. I have never had the privilege of being able to perform at anywhere within miles of the Games
and know that there is still a cachet attached to that that means a lot. Many of your contributors will
be able to speak of that from personal experience which will no doubt feed this discussion.
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