On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee announced that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are postponed until next year. Prior to the announcement, many countries said they would not be participating in the Games if the Olympics went on as scheduled.
On his podcast "Nothing Personal with David Samson," David Samson sat down to discuss the announcement and his issues with the IOC's statement.
"In the least surprising news, in an offseason of so many of these types of announcements that are not surprising to those of us actually paying a modicum of attention, the Olympics have officially been postponed," Samson opens the topic with, reminding listeners that he has been calling for this since late February.
How the announcement was made, however, Samson had problems with, "They made an announcement that is going to turn out to be a mistake. They said that we are postponing the Olympics to no later than the summer of 2021."
He asks the listeners to take off their fan hat and put on their business or athletic hat, asking the question, "When you are training for a marathon or training to do any of the summer Olympic sports, what is the most important thing?" Responding to his own inquiry with, "I need to know the day of my race, the day of my competition, I need to know how to set up my training program."
By not giving a date, he says athletes will not know how to prepare and with social distancing, they cannot prepare as they normally would.
After giving the date of summer 2021 as the latest they would go, Samson calls them out saying they can't guarantee it will happen by then.
The Olympics are about much more than just the actual events, they involve a lot of preparation and organization. Between the hotels for athletes, buildings and arenas for the events and places for fans to stay, there is a lot to work out before the Games can be rescheduled.
Instead of a big announcement about when the games will be played by, Samson says, "The IOC simply should have said ... We are postponing the Olympics in 2020 in Tokyo. We are working on rescheduling at the soonest practical moment by working in conjunction with Tokyo and the IOC."
