Donald Trump's coup further complicates the Tokyo Olympics

“It may be postponed for a year,” says the President of the United States as the International Olympic Committee withstands the pressure

In less than a minute and with indecision -in four sentences he inserted “maybe” four times- Donald Trump put more weight on the backpack that the organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games carry this Friday. “Perhaps, and it is only my opinion, they are postponed for a year. Maybe they will organize them, if possible, or maybe not. I think it has never happened in a Games, no! I think there were suspensions during the World Wars. Maybe, maybe, they will be postponed for a year », declared the President of the United States, and thus increased the pressure. Since January, when coronavirus deaths began to be counted in China, the Organizing Committee and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have been urged to postpone or cancel the Games and, despite this, the event still stands.

In recent days, both organizations have been divided, but their heads have maintained that the greatest sporting event will be held. “Neither the International Olympic Committee (IOC) nor the Organizing Committee (of Tokyo 2020) have considered any postponement or cancellation of the Games,” said the Japanese Minister for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Seiko Hashimoto, in line with the words of the President. IOC Thomas Bach this Thursday after the Olympic flame lighting ceremony in Olympia. “We are absolutely in line with our Japanese hosts in our commitment to deliver safe Games in July this year,” said Bach, despite the fact that the Olympic flame itself became just a few hours later another victim of the planetary crisis from the coronavirus. This Friday, before the fire reached Sparta, where many fans were waiting for it, the Greek Olympic Committee (HOC, by its initials in English) decided to suspend the tour of the torch.

It was the last of the cancellations, perhaps the least complicated, perhaps the most symbolic. Today the vast majority of sports competitions around the world are already stopped: yesterday, after hesitation, the Premier, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1, several Formula 1 Grand Prix, the Giro d'Italia and the Augusta Masters decided on it. golf, among other events. In Spain, many Primera teams parked their training and many Olympic athletes began preparing at home after the closure of the Madrid CAR and other facilities. In this scenario, in fact, the strange thing is that the Paris-Nice of cycling – where the Bahrain-McLaren team dropped out – and the All England Open of badminton, already started, decided to continue.

For the organizers of the Tokyo Games the problem is time. As coronavirus positive cases multiply in both Europe and the United States, the Olympic calendar runs. 135 days remain for the inauguration on July 24, but most qualifying processes have yet to be settled. In individual sports, despite the injustice it would entail, the closure of the rankings and the classification of those who are in the best situation at the moment could be decreed, but in the case of collective sports, many tournaments are missing to decide the countries that compete. This Friday, after insisting for several days that it would be played behind closed doors, the International Handball Federation (IHF, for its acronym in English), backed down and decided that the Women's Handball Pre-Olympic team that was going to host Spain, in Lliria, this same month, it was postponed until June.

By then, the leaders of the Organizing Committee of the Games and the IOC hope that the affectation of the coronavirus has subsided in most countries and the competition of competitions can be disputed, but even if it were, although the best forecasts of the experts are they may comply, the pressure may force them to accept the cancellation before. Maybe, that Donald Trump ventured.