The Olympics are a multi million-dollar quadrennial worldwide sporting event, the largest in the world. The last Olympics,2018 were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea while the last summer Olympics were in 2016 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. For the first time in recorded history the 2020 Olympics has been postponed. The date will be moved from the original July 24th through August 9th of 2020 to the 23rd of July to August 8th of 2021. Through the history of the Olympics the games have been canceled three times the 1916 Summer Olympics were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War 1, 1940 Olympic Games were forfeited by Japan do to their war with China part of World War II, and the 1944 Summer Olympics in London were canceled due to the Nazi invasion of Poland again World War II.
Japan is losing quite a bit of money but in postponing the games they may not fall into worse economic issues. Compared to if the games were canceled completely for Tokyo. Originally the organizers estimated the cost to be roughly 12.6 billion while other experts are now estimating that it's closer to 25 billion. This shows our situation is almost to the level of a World War as postponement is the halfway mark to cancellation. To think that the games have only been canceled for World War and now without World War occurring we are almost to that level of fear and chaos in our society. Meaning that the world is in a dire situation and this cannot be taken lightly.
Postponement of the games will impact the billions of dollars spent by sponsors and broadcasters that would be working during this time. We also have to consider all the people that would normally be working at the game and all the athletes. Normally they would be finishing up the training at this point, getting ready and finalizing everything for the games. But as they are not, they have to stay fit and stay prepared until the summer of next year. We forget that these people are humans just like the rest of us and have lives, jobs and families to consider. Being athletes for most of them is not their entire lives they have other responsibilities that will be put on the back burner to say because they have to keep trying. So the question is should new athletes be chosen this winter in preparation for the new games of Summer 2021 or should the Olympics have just pushed back the dates meaning that the Summer Olympics this year would be pushed back to the next date As in the year 2024 and has the Tokyo Olympics then. It would be simpler if we moved it to 2024 and then had Paris who is in charge of the Olympics for the year 2024 to move back a year and continuing on just so that everyone would have it planned out easily there could be repercussions for all of the Olympics and everyone would have time to get back on their feet and the economics of the world could be balanced while everyone struggles or doesn't struggle to get everything back to normal.
If the Summer Olympics were to be held in the year 2020 meaning that the next Winter Olympics will be held in 2022 supposedly in Beijing China what would that mean for us moving on. Is it fair for the 2020 Olympic dates to be pushed back while there is traditionally a gap year between the winter and summer Olympics but with this new date set that won't be happening. Is it fair to Beijing that there is no Gap year for people to prepare. What about that pandemic will people actually still buy tickets and go to the summer games when they happen in 2021 what kind of safety precautions will the game's directors put in place? Sadly we don't know any of this yet we're still in a major crisis and we don't know when it will be over when we'll have a vaccine or any kind of fix to this issue. 304 k people have died worldwide, can we really just stand back up after this crisis is averted” and just go back to normal life like we believe? I don't believe that the average citizen realizes how different the world will have to be when we leave our homes again. School won't be the same, work won't be the same, we'll have the stress of disease in the back of a mine for a long time. This is a worldwide pandemic flu season that comes and goes. We can't just brush it off and go back to mass sporting events, concerts and festivals. We cannot ignore the fact that the only other reason three Olympic games were cancelled were because of world one and World War II. The fact that the games are postponed shows how bad of a situation we are but we still crave normality and promises that we will leave our homes and go back to our normal routines. It simply is. Our normal routines are no longer normal. As we leave quarantine and attempt to go back to festivals sporting events and regular life will have changed. masks and gloves and social distancing will be a thing for a significant amount of time so the question is will it yet be safe for us to attend such event as the Summer Olympics in Tokyo without causing some new outbreak of Covid-19 or a spread of that specifically in Japan that would then be spread worldwide as athletes and attendance of the games and returned home. The question is should the games be cancelled and moved 20/24 or should they be postponed simply to 20 21.
The postponement of the 2020 Olympics shows the course theme of fear can cause and prevent conflict. The fear of masses congregating for such an event such as the summer games causes the directors to reconsider the current date. and as such the date was moved to the year 2021 as to not cause people to leave their homes and leave Corinth. as the death rate Covid-19 is so high quarantine is still necessary. Also the fear of catching Covid-19 and becoming ill causes people to stay home making it impossible for the Olympics to continue as originally planned. Many people do not want to leave their homes as they are concerned and fearful. So in this people staying in their homes self quarantine we are preventing conflict from happening and anyone from attending the games and causing any more spread of the virus. But as some people do not agree and are not taking Covid-19 as seriously as others there are some that this fear is causing more conflict as they do not agree with the decision to move the date of the games. They believe that they should still be held as normally.
Vocab :
-Postponed: arrange for (something) to take place at a time later than scheduled
-Olympics: a series of international athletic contests held as separate winter and summer events in a different country every four years
-Quadrennial: occurring every four years
-Covid-19: a respiratory illness that is caused by a corona virus called SARS-CoV-2
-Quarantine: a period of time when there is a restriction of movement due to the exposure of a infectious or contagious disease
Questions:
1. Do you agree that the Olympics should be postponed with the same athletes participating? Or should others have the opportunity to represent their country?
2.What about the people who bought tickets, should they get their money for airfare back? Or should the companies give “free” airfare to the Olympics when they actually happen?
3.How do (you the people) feel about the Olympics still being called Tokyo 2020 even though it will be held in spring/summer of 2021?
LINKS:
I think the Olympics should be postponed with the same athletes participating because the athletes had worked very hard to get to that level. However, if they had been to other previous Olympics, then maybe allow more fresh faces to be in the spotlight.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with Beth (that the athletes worked hard to get there), I also think that many other athletes have also been training and working just as hard. With this work being put in, other athletes can become better than those who were supposed to participate in the olympic this year. With that being said, it would be unfair to not give a chance to the other athletes who didn't make it this year, but could possibly make it in the next olympics.
ReplyDeleteI think that the cancellation of sporting events amid COVID-19 is a very hard and almost heartbreaking situation. Athletes at the collegiate, professional, and olympic levels all worked extremely hard to get to their position, and to have everything they worked up to get cancelled, it's quite heart braking. That being said, I think that athletes who've qualified for the olympic games this summer should get the chance to fulfill their dreams and compete. But, if the athlete really isn't at the right caliber and other athletes out work and out train them, they might look to letting a few new athletes get a chance.
ReplyDeleteHow do (you the people) feel about the Olympics still being called Tokyo 2020 even though it will be held in spring/summer of 2021?
ReplyDeleteI am disappointed that they are cancelled because I was excited to watch them and all the athletes show their skill and dedication to their sports. All athletes worked so hard to get to their positions and levels, so I empathize with them as an athlete myself as having your season and everything you worked for cancelled due to the pandemic. I hope that the athletes who were chosen to be in Tokyo 2020 will be able to still showcase their skill and dedication.