I.O.C.’s Reassurance About the Tokyo Olympics Rankles Some Athletes

On the I.O.C.’s conference call, one athlete representative asked about the optics of sending people out for training and whether that would send the wrong message to society when everyone else has been told to stay at home. The athlete, according to notes of the call provided to The New York Times by multiple participants, wondered if the I.O.C. could offer training guidelines or regulations to put everyone on the same playing field. He was told that even at the height of the crisis in China, athletes there were able to continue training.

Multiple people in the session asked the I.O.C. officials about a so-called no-go date — a deadline when the organization would make a final decision on proceeding with the Games — and about the specific conditions that would have to be met for the event to go on as planned. They were told that there was no such date, and no details on decision-making were offered.

One athlete asked about the possibility of staging the Games without spectators. Christoph De Kepper, the I.O.C. director general, replied that such an outcome was “not preferred” but that “all options are on the table.”

Such conference calls are fairly common among different Olympic stakeholder groups, but it was unusual for Bach, the president, to address the group. In his remarks, Bach emphasized the importance of not speculating on the cancellation of Games, pointing to the falling Japanese stock market as evidence of the dangers.

“It’s clear people are getting to a breaking point,” Xiao said. “I’m seeing almost a critical mass of athlete voices expressing frustration or asking the question, ‘Should this be postponed?’”

Callum Skinner, a member of the British Olympic Association’s athlete commission and a gold medal-winning cyclist at the 2016 Rio Games, said that athletes were finding the uncertainty difficult to deal with and that those who manage it best are likely to be the best performers at the Games, whenever they take place.

He said athletes would need six months’ notice — or at the very least three — to be at their peak for the Olympics, given that training is tailored and sometimes tapered to ensure optimal performance.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/sports/olympics/olympics-coronavirus-athletes-training.html