Tokyo 2020 Olympics—Japan Is The World’s Greatest Optimistic Hope. But Canada Pulls Out

Everywhere you look right now online it may seem like perpetually bad news. With large swathes of the world in lockdown and sports events canceled around the globe, people are looking for shoots of positivity.

In China, many tourist attractions are beginning to reopen but large gatherings including sports events around the world remain on hold.

The Euro 2020 football European Championship has now been postponed and renamed to Euro 2021.

However, the world’s greatest and largest sporting event remains unchanged, for now. With travel restrictions in place around the world due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Olympic Games have come under doubt, with just four months until the largest sporting event in the world begins.

The Summer Olympics have only ever been canceled three times since their inception. In 1916 due to the onset of World War I and then in 1940 and 1944 during World War II.

The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee acting President Toshiaki Endo said that he “hopes the torch relay that begins today will engender many dreams and aspirations, and bring hope for tomorrow.”

The Olympics has, for now, still not been postponed, despite calls for the world’s largest sporting event to be moved. In a symbol for optimism and progress, the games are still aiming to bring Tokyo, Japan, and subsequently the world to life.

In a statement from the International Olympic Committee, The IOC “encourages all athletes to continue to prepare for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 as best they can.”

However, on Sunday Canada said that it would not send a team to Tokyo unless the Olympic Games were postponed for a year. With an even playing field necessary the Canadian Olympic committee cited not only athlete health but public health. The Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee said: “While we recognise the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community.”

World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe expects there to be a decision in the coming days and weeks whether the competition will go ahead on July 24. The IOC will continue to monitor the situation 24/7. A statement read: “Already in mid-February, a task force was set up consisting of the IOC, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, the Japanese authorities and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.”

The Olympic Torch has now arrived in Japan and when I reached out to the IOC there was continued optimism that the games would go ahead. When the torch left ancient Athens the Hellenic Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos said that “we bid farewell to this great Olympic symbol, which brings together humanity, antiquity and modern times. I wish to believe that the journey of the Olympic flame in your country will offer joy and hope to the people of the whole world, who are currently in pain and challenged.”



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