Olympians Have Another Year to Prepare for Tokyo. It’s a Blessing and a Curse.

She took two years off after winning a team gold medal and a bronze in the balance beam at the Rio Games, working in entertainment. She competed on “Dancing With the Stars” — and won it — and also hosted “American Ninja Warriors Junior.”

When she embarked on a comeback to the national team late last year, many people in the sport said it was too late. Before her gym was closed Thursday because of a statewide lockdown, she had been going there six days a week, at least five hours a day, training and rushing to fine-tune routines. She was doing everything and anything that could give her the best chance at making the Olympic team this summer.

“Of course, I’d love more time to train,” she said last week.

For other athletes, a postponement fit with what the doctor ordered.

Kathleen Baker, 23, who won a gold and silver medal in swimming at the Rio Olympics, has Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disorder that makes her especially vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.

Training lately had descended into a search for open pools in San Diego, where she lives. “It’s been everyone fending for themselves, so it is not what the Olympics are all about,” Baker said recently.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/sports/olympics/coronavirus-olympics-athletes-reaction.html