In Poll, Track and Field Athletes Favor Postponing the Olympics

“The entire world is in a state of uncertainty,” said Christian Taylor, a founder of the Athletics Association and a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump. “We’re in a revolving door we continue to be locked in. This is just being drawn out for too long.”

Taylor said he and other athletes have grown increasingly frustrated at the limited information they have received as the crisis has spread across the globe. He said he and his training group in Jacksonville, Fla., have been watching the news and reading blogs for information, rather than relying on updates from people in charge of the competition.

Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, track and field’s governing body, on Sunday called on Bach to postpone the Games.

“Whilst we all know that different parts of the world are at different stages of the virus, the unanimous view across all our Areas is that an Olympic Games in July this year is neither feasible nor desirable,” Coe wrote to Bach on behalf of his federation.

Beyond concern over their own health and safety, the athletes said they were upset that holding the Olympic Games when so many of them had not been able to train properly would be unfair.

Emma Coburn, an Olympic bronze medalist in the steeplechase who is training in Boulder, Colo., said no one could predict what the world would look like this summer, but athletes know, right now, that the virus has wreaked havoc with training schedules.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/sports/olympics/track-and-field-poll-Olympics-coronavirus.html