By Gigi Picard ’22
Sports Editor
The United States Olympic Committee Headquarters in Colorado Springs. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
As the COVID-19 vaccine rollouts continue, the sports world has turned its focus onto the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. Last year, the 2020 Olympic games were postponed until 2021 because of the pandemic. Since workout facilities had to shut down, the Olympic hopefuls needed to find a way to stay in shape. Some athletes were able to rely on home gyms, while others came up with creative alternatives depending on their sport. One climber made use of their kitchen and basement.
While the athletes have put hard work into their own training, COVID-19 cases in Japan surged in April, leading to more calls to cancel the Olympic Games. With 88 days until the Olympics, Insider reported in late April that Japan had around a “seven-day average of 4,772 new cases per day,” an increase of over 3,700 compared to the beginning of March. The New York Times posted that nearly 80 percent of the Japanese public desire another postponement or cancellation of the Olympics.
In May, Reuters stated that an official partner of the Tokyo Games, the Japanese newspaper publisher Asahi Shimbun, agreed with the public’s calls to cancel the Games over public safety concerns in a written editorial. At the time, Reuters reported only a little over 5 percent of people in Japan were given vaccinations, and the country had about 719,000 infections and 12,394 deaths. Based on the circumstances in Japan, CBS Sports shared a statement by the Centers for Disease Control advising United States residents to avoid going to Japan: “Because of the current situation in Japan even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants and should avoid all travel to Japan.”
Despite the surge in COVID-19 cases and protests for cancellation of the games, countries like the United States and Australia have decided to move forward with their Olympic trials. The United States began men’s and women’s swimming, diving and wrestling trials in late spring 2021.
At this time, the Olympics are scheduled to start on July 23 and end on Aug. 8, 2021.The New York Times reported that the International Olympic Committee indicates the Games will go on, but with no foreign spectators. For those interested in keeping track of any United States Olympic trials, refer to the box.