A New Reality In Sports

2020 was a strange year for many points of view and it looks like 2021 will be even stranger. Sports had to change as well, to adapt to the new situation in order to carry on. The Olympics has been postponed to next year, but as the situation looks like right now, it may not be so easy to organize the event, or it's going to be postponed again.

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Australian Open

Tennis season is starting with the Australian Open in February. Australia is fighting the pandemic just as any other country of the world, and I think they are in not a very good position as there's a lockdown in place. The Australian government has published the quarantine conditions for players.

Last year there were 125 single players, 64 doubles pairs and 32 mixed doubles pairs, plus the staff that comes with these players, organizers and others who have to take part at the venue in order for the event to take place.

The event starts on the 8th of February, 2021 but players (and most likely staff traveling with them) has to arrive earlier. They must stay in quarantine, under the above mentioned quarantine conditions, which must be frustrating and imagine what it means, when they have to do it over and over again on every major event they are participating in. Practice conditions are also limited, which will most likely affect results. Being restricted this way before every major event is not pleasant.

My last sports post was about mental health and mental strength. Imagine the stress these measures can cause to each and every athlete, the pressure they must be going through, when they know one wrong move can cost them dearly.

Olympics

In 2016 at the Rio Olympics there were 306 events, 207 nations sent a number of 11,000 athletes and add to that all the additional personnel, like trainers, managers, doctors, you name it.

The 2021 Olympics would probably have a similar number, or less due to the new covid regulations. Not everyone will be able to attend and I suspect some are going to stay home to avoid getting infected.

At the time of writing, BBC has announced that an additional 2.8 billion will be spent on organizing the event, a part of which on safety measures, to stop the virus.

Last year it was already known Japan has spent twice more than estimated in the initial financial plan and back then there wasn't any sign of pandemic yet. They most likely believed they can cover the extra expenses somehow, although looking at it from outside, I don't think there was much hope for that. Postponing the event has already involved additional costs.

2020 was the first year the world had to face the consequences of the pandemic, most of the sport events had to be held without spectators, or their number were limited to 1000 or so. This meant income from ticket selling were close to nothing and rewards had to be adjusted accordingly.

Japan has been counting on massive tourist presence, that would have boosted sales and the hospitality industry would have gained a lot. That is wishful thinking now as even if the event will take place, the number of tourists won't be the same as in normal conditions, not even close.

There are still roughly 7 months till the Olympics, the vaccine is out, UK is starting its vaccination program next week it seems, but how will that change the situation? Mass vaccination takes time, in the first phase front line workers and elderly people are the ones benefiting from it.

We know it hasn’t been easy for anyone in tennis. We will also pay for charter flights, player and entourage quarantine costs, meals and accommodation. Player accommodation will be covered for their entire stay until they are finished at the AO. source

The above statement was made by the government. Now imagine quarantining everyone at the Olympics and covering the costs. Can you imagine that? I can't.

Options

A better option would be postponing the event again for another year, till the situation becomes better. Now that we're going to have a vaccine worldwide, there's hope the spread of the virus can be slowed or even stopped, the question is when. One year from now people should have developed some level of immunity, that can help a lot. This is my opinion looking only at the safety part.

Financially it is a different matter as keeping those venues at the required standards involves more costs, costs that most likely Japan can't afford. Not to mention the Olympic village apartments, that were already sold before the event should have started.

This is unprecedented and any organizer should think of the possibility of this happening again. I'm curious to see how the Olympics will be taking place and when.

2020 was a test year, organizers had to learn how to deal with the new situation, so I hope this experience will help them in the future, so next year all the major sport events can take place.