The 2020 Olympics will be postponed.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00According to a report from USA Today,
00:02the 2020 Summer Olympics are expected to be postponed.
00:06In the report published on Monday,
00:07IOC member Dick Pound said that the games
00:09will indeed be postponed, likely to 2021,
00:13and that the details will be released
00:15over the next few weeks.
00:17Let's welcome in SI senior writer,
00:18Michael Rosenberg, for his take.
00:20And Michael, nothing is official yet here,
00:22but if true, is this the right move?
00:26Yeah, well, this has been coming for a while.
00:28Everybody within the Olympics understands
00:31this is where it's been heading.
00:32Dick Pound doesn't speak for the IOC.
00:34So they announced this weekend
00:37that they are going to take a four-week window
00:39to make an official decision.
00:41Everybody understood where this is headed.
00:44This story doesn't really change what we've already known.
00:47And they really don't have another option.
00:49I mean, think of public health.
00:50If they want a real Olympics
00:52where people have time to prepare
00:53and trials can be run in an orderly manner,
00:56and the U.S. can participate in the way they want
00:59and they have no choice
01:00but to either cancel or postpone the games,
01:02and they don't want to cancel.
01:04And postponing is complicated,
01:05but that's what they have to do.
01:07We've seen leagues, Michael,
01:09postponing and canceling games and seasons across sports.
01:12The Olympics are scheduled for late July.
01:15Why not wait and see how the next month plays out
01:18before postponing?
01:20Yeah, it doesn't work that way.
01:21You know, if you look at Major League Baseball right now,
01:24what they're saying is, players, go home.
01:27If we have a chance to do this this year,
01:29we're going to bring you back,
01:30do what we need to do for spring training to get you ready,
01:32and then we'll start organizing and having these games.
01:35Well, with the Olympics, there are 11,000 athletes.
01:38Some of them have already qualified.
01:39Some should be trying to qualify right now.
01:42Their training is really scheduled
01:44down to the hour, months in advance.
01:47You can't just shuffle the schedule
01:48and then have them show up on July 24th.
01:51It doesn't work that way.
01:52They've already been rattled and thrown off.
01:54So they really don't have as much time
01:56as the public might think to make this decision,
01:58and that's why it's headed where it's headed.
02:01Now, he said the news isn't official yet,
02:03but I know you've said that you feel
02:05the U.S. Olympic Committee should pull out of the games
02:08prior to any official announcement.
02:10Is that right?
02:11Absolutely.
02:12I mean, if you look, Canada has pulled out.
02:14They said, we're not going to send a team this year.
02:15If you both phone up, we will obviously
02:17try to send a team next year.
02:18Australia, which has long had a good history in the summer,
02:21especially in the pool, has said,
02:23we're not sending a team this year.
02:25This is where it's going, and it's not fair to me
02:28to have the athletes training and trying to train
02:31and falling behind in their training for the next month
02:33and panicking and worrying about it
02:35when you know where this is going to end anyway.
02:37So the USOC can sort of be the last one
02:40to kind of pull that piece out
02:42and the whole thing falls apart.
02:44And they're trying to play it both ways,
02:46politically with the IOC, play with NBC,
02:49but it's not fair to the athletes.
02:50And so, yeah, I think the USOC should say
02:53what is obvious to everybody.
02:54I think they'd be doing a service to their athletes
02:56to say, hey, this does not work for us.
02:58We wish it did.
02:59Let's do this right next year.
03:02If they are done next year and postponed to 2021, Michael,
03:05any idea on how that would work
03:07as far as qualifying teams being formed?
03:11We're talking probably about 14, 15 months later than now.
03:17Well, for the viewers, how it would work is
03:19you would find out when the Olympics started
03:20and you would turn on your streaming connection
03:24or whatever it is and you would watch.
03:25But for the IOC, there are so many issues here
03:28that are very difficult to resolve.
03:30I mean, I've seen estimates of a billion dollars in costs.
03:33I believe it.
03:34Just for example, you have housing for media,
03:36athletes village, that is generally something
03:39that you will build for the Olympics
03:40and then turn it into college dorms
03:43or condos or apartments, whatever it is.
03:45And that stuff is probably already been sold for this fall.
03:49So now what do you do with that for next summer?
03:52All the trials, there are so many issues there.
03:54And frankly, this will shock people.
03:57There are going to be lawsuits over this.
03:59As soon as you start messing
04:00with the qualification procedure,
04:02somebody is going to say, I got a raw deal.
04:04This hurt my chances of not only achieving my dream,
04:07but of maximizing my income.
04:09And there will be legal ramifications.
04:10So there are so many issues
04:12that they're considering right now
04:13that most of us haven't really considered.
04:15So it's very difficult.
04:17It's not something anybody wanted,
04:18but they really don't have a choice.
04:20They have to do it.
04:21Yeah, certainly a logistical nightmare.
04:25Sports Illustrated senior writer, Michael Rosenberg.
04:28Michael, thanks for being with us.
04:29Thank you so much.