Coronavirus – Tokyo 2020: The Olympic Games must be suspended


No. In the same way that we are asked to stay home,the International Olympic Committee must give a leadership lesson.In this situation, the Olympic Games, if we really want to have an event that deserves that name and not a festival where once again the important thing is money – and that, if in the end it gets done – they should not, should not they can, celebrate.The IOC must announce the postponement of the Games, without waiting for the WHO to tell it.For your own good. You can not do anything else.
TOToday, March 15, we are131 days from the scheduled date for the Tokyo Olympics.We don’t know exactly how long we’ve beenwith the coronavirus crisis. In Spain we have a day of confinement -not too strict, but confinement after all- In China they take about two months, butThis radical measure was taken when the crisis started, not when it started.Now, there they start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Here, we don’t even know how long that tunnel is – just how long yours was. However, in those two months it can already be said that sufficient evidence is in hand to make another decision. Equally drastic, equally difficult, equally painful, and equally necessary:The Tokyo 2020 Olympics should not be held. At least, on the date that is scheduled today: July 24.
There are several reasons that they do not advise, but practically impose that decision:sanitary, that is, human, sports and organizational. All of them of weight.Perhaps the latter, ironic but dangerous for the Olympic image, can be ignored, but the former, no. As of today, according to official figures,There are more than 150,000 cases of an epidemic that cannot be medically controlled yet, and the death toll exceeds 5,000.But perhaps most significant are thehuge differences between incidence and lethality figures per pass.If we look at the figures for China, 1 out of every 25 infected has died there. In Iran, 1 in 20. In Iraq, 1 in 9. In Italy, 1 in 14. In Spain, 1 in 26. In Germany, 1 in 49. In the United Kingdom, where take no further action, 1 in 39 and in the United States, where there is no universal or public health care worthy of the name, 1 in 49. Today.
Terrible figures? Yes, because they are also taken raw, without separating them by age group, where the greatest problem seems to be. And these big differences between one country and anotherwhat they probably denote are the statistical differences when counting the data. For example, in Germany the leading and most important pathology is counted as the cause of death, not the fact that the coronavirus has aggravated the situation.
These statistical differenceshide an obvious dangerand especially in those countries without public or universal sanitation such as the United States-let alone Africa, South America, various parts of Asia …-:that the number of infections is really higher, that there are asymptomatic patients who may be carriers and continue to spread the disease. In other words, we do not even have a real map of the pandemic at the moment.Even in Europe, where more progress has been made in health coverage, there are enormous differences in the treatment of the situation by country. To this we add a world as interconnected as the current one, at all levels.
The most effective measure appears to bemovement restriction.Border closures are constantly being called for and executed. And what are the Olympic Games?A universal meeting point.Same in July in Japan your pandemic is under control but the others?
And obviously the sporting aspects are a direct consequence of these. The world is paralyzing except in some places, which little by little are also slowing down.The sport is stopped.International competitions, for which freedom of movement is basic, obviously also.
Among those competitions are the qualifiers for the Olympic Games. There are already athletes with a place, but others are playing it. People for whom sport is their profession and their life, who were calculating peaks of formfor competitions that will not take place; teams without dates to play pre-olympics and their own local competitions.People who are not allowed to participate because they come from risk areas …Can, in that case, the great event of the sport be held? Because it is possible, it is possible that Duplantis or Novak Djokovic are isolated and will have a safe place, butIs it fair and honest to others?A few sloppy games are worthy of their history and tradition, where the squares are given by hand or are for those who have not been dragged by the pandemic ?. They aremore than 10,000 athletes, remember.
10,000 athletes.Let’s add teams. Let’s add public.To this pandemicit is not going to end by decree and it is given, let us remember that its very existence has not cut back that reality precisely exists and is stubborn.Those people are not going to make it to Japan, we have said,coming from places where the pandemic is being treated uniformly. It would be utopian to think that in July everything is finished. Also, let’s go back to the previous point on what date in July? with enough time to put everything back together?
No. In the same way that we are asked to stay home,the International Olympic Committee must give a leadership lesson.In this situation, the Olympic Games, if we really want to have an event that deserves that name and not a festival in which once again the important thing is money – and that, if in the end it is possible to do it – they should not, should not they can, celebrate.The IOC must announce the postponement of the Games, without waiting for the WHO to tell it.For your own good. You can not do anything else.
Postscript: That, not to mention that among the differences by country is the treatment of its athletes. In some countries they can be trained. In others, no.And here in Spain last week it was celebrating that public funds had finally been released for the final stretch of preparation.I do not think that its processing is the most urgent now for the Government.