The coronavirus pandemic has brought the world to a standstill. High-profile sports events were one of the first social activities to be shut down after many athletes were among the high-profile victims. Under such circumstances it was unbelievable that the Olympic committee continued to remain optimistic on hosting the Games as scheduled. It was indeed a relief when they eventually decided to delay it to the coming year (“I support ‘brave decision’ to postpone Olympics, says Osaka,” Mar.28, Gulf Today).

It is a brave decision, like Osaka, the Japanese tennis star says, but it was necessary considering that social distancing is of paramount importance if the virus is to be kept at bay. One can imagine how it would have been for athletes who were required to train for the high-profile Games which come just once in four years.

The world is in the grip of the deadly virus with lockdowns and quarantines is place in over 195 countries so it intrigues me on why the International Olympic Committee and the host took such a long time to come to a decision. Containing the spread of the virus is the top priority due to which qualification events were either rescheduled or cancelled. So under such circumstances they were putting athletes who were training under grave risk. Thankfully good sense prevailed.

It is no doubt a huge setback to not only for the athletes who have qualified, those preparing for the Games and the hosts. But the health and well-being of everyone, not only the athletes, is of prime concern. So there are two ways on this. It is without doubt a wise decision.

The decision does raise a few worries for athletes, as far as fitness goes. High fitness training is what it takes to compete at the Olympic level and so it will be rather difficult to continue with that under these conditions. Furthermore some athletes may lose out due to the age bar which would now be as of 2021. And the worst scenario would be an injury during the intervening period. But postponement was the only way out.

Caroll Ross — By email