The one-year postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could open the door for convicted drug cheats to compete for medals, an issue that will need to addressed, United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) chief Travis Tygart said yesterday. “This was an issue raised on a call of national anti-doping agencies from 21 countries today,” Tygart told Reuters. “It is one of many complex issues that will have to be thought through and determined now that the Games have been postponed.”
Currently, there is no exception to extending an anti-doping sanction for postponed events if the athlete or coach has served their ban when the competition takes place. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) did not immediately respond for comment.
The doping question is sure to be one of many for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Tokyo organisers and WADA to address after IOC president Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed yesterday that the Games needed to be delayed a year due to the threat posed by the coronavirus outbreak.
If an athlete has served his or her ban and is denied a chance to qualify for an Olympic spot it is almost certain such a ruling could be challenged in court. While anti-doping rules cannot be changed retroactively, the updated WADA Code comes on line in January 2021 which could be applied and impact suspensions.
Postponement is about
saving lives: IOC chief Bach
International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach said that he and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not discuss the cost of postponing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to 2021 due to the coronavirus as it is a matter of saving lives. “This is about protecting lives,” Bach said. The precise dates for the new Games have not yet been determined, Bach said. “About two hours after my phone call I cannot give you a definite answer.
“These are the reasons why we had decided we need at least four weeks to assess all these questions... These are not the only ones,” Bach added on a phone call with journalists.
Bach said alarming figures about the spread of the virus in recent days had left little choice in the matter. “We agreed given these circumstances that the Games must be rescheduled to a later date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021,” he said. The IOC and organisers are now faced with a massive undertaking of rescheduling the Games that has a multitude of moving parts with 33 sports involved and an additional price tag to the $12bn already spent by Tokyo for the Olympics. Bach said the IOC’s coordination commission had already started work on this project and it would work towards determining new dates.
Athletes’ association
says change of culture
needed at IOC
A change of culture is needed at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make decision-making more inclusive, an association representing 85,000 athletes around the world said, following the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021.
World Players Association (WPA) executive director Brendan Schwab said that, while he was happy with the decision to postpone the Games, the delay in making it in the face of the growing coronavirus pandemic made the IOC look almost naive.
“What we would like to see is a change in the culture of decision-making at the IOC — a shift from the hierarchical approach, a culture of hierarchy, to a culture of inclusion,” Schwab said. “The IOC should take comfort from the fact that when it does involve critical stakeholders, when it does involve the athletes, then the best decision will be made.”
Schwab said that the decision had taken a “long time” and that the IOC only moved its position “in response to some unprecedented pressures throughout the world, initially from athlete groups, certainly civil society.”
Swimming open to
moving 2021 worlds
The International Swimming Federation (FINA) said that is prepared to move next year’s world championships after the 2020 Olympics were postponed to no later than summer 2021.
The swimming worlds are set to be held in Fukuoka in Japan between July 16 and August 1 next year, but yesterday’s historic announcement that this summer’s Tokyo Games have been pushed back throws those dates into doubt. “FINA will now work closely with the host organising committee of the 2021 FINA World Championships in Fukuoka, with the Japan Swimming Federation and with the Japanese public authorities, in order to determine flexibility around the dates of the competition, if necessary and in agreement with the IOC (International Olympic Committee),” FINA said in a statement.
No plan to change
Olympic marathon
location from Hokkaido
There is no plan to change the location of the Olympic marathon from the northern island of Hokkaido even with the delay of the Games to next year, the president of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, Yoshiro Mori, said.
Organisers previously moved the marathon to Hokkaido because of concerns about the heat in Tokyo during the summer.
Travis Tygart
