Half the World Is On Lockdown. For Sports? More Like 99 Percent.

As the host of the 2020, we mean the 2021, Summer Games, Japan has drawn an outsize share of attention during the coronavirus pandemic. While it did shut down some events as early as February, and closed schools in March, it was slower to adopt some other mitigation efforts like working from home and social distancing, in part because its infection rates seemed low.

But after the Olympics were postponed a year by the International Olympic Committee, Japan seemed to begin to catch up with many other countries. But in sports, it is still sometimes taking half-measures.

The most recent elite sumo tournament, or basho, was held as scheduled March 10-22 in Osaka, although without spectators and without the traditional offering of a ladle of water from a winning wrestler to the next one up. (The winner of the basho was Hakuho, who collected his record 44th win.)

On Friday, the May and July tournaments were postponed, but only by two weeks. That delay, at least in the case of the May basho, seems unlikely to push the event into a safe period.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/sports/sumo-cycling-olympics.html