Canada’s decision forced IOC’s hand By: Editorial Posted: 5:25 PM CDT Tuesday, Mar. 24, 2020

Opinion

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This article was published 23/03/2020 (1696 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They won’t be handing out Olympic medals in Tokyo this summer — but Team Canada has already won the gold for leadership and courage.

On Sunday night, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) took a stand, demanding the Tokyo Games — set to begin July 24 — be postponed for a year, and refusing to send any athletes if the Summer Olympics proceeded as scheduled.

“This is not solely about athlete health — it is about public health,” the committees said in a statement Sunday night. “With COVID-19 and the associated risks, it is not safe for our athletes, and the health and safety of their families and the broader Canadian community for athletes to continue training towards these Games.”

In taking that action, Canada became the first nation to publicly refuse to take part in a massive athletic spectacle amid the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.

“Leading the world. Very proud of this evening,” five-time Olympian Hayley Wickenheiser, a member of the IOC’s Athletes Commission, said in a social-media post.

The organizations representing Canadian Olympians took their decisive action mere hours after the International Olympic Committee, despite mounting pressure, had announced it would take another four weeks to contemplate whether to postpone the 2020 Games.

To its credit, Canada was not prepared to sit on its collective hands and wait, opting instead to fire a warning shot across the IOC’s bow. That prompted other countries, including Australia, to follow Canada’s lead and demand a postponement.

On Tuesday morning, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and IOC president Thomas Bach relented, agreeing to postpone the Olympics until 2021.

“The Games … must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community,” said a statement from the IOC and the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.

“The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present.”

Well, it’s about time, IOC. Indeed, the Olympic Games can be “a beacon,” but it would have been wildly irresponsible to expect athletes, spectators and officials to come together in violation of social-distancing rules required to prevent a spike in infections that could overwhelm the world’s health-care systems.

Postponement was inevitable, but it’s unlikely it would have been announced Tuesday had not Canada’s decisive stand forced the issue.

In taking so long to make what now seems an obvious decision, the IOC was sending a predictable but dangerous message that profits matter more than public safety.

Let’s be clear: when people are getting sick, when people are dying, when people are losing their jobs, when people around the world are sheltering in place in hopes of “flattening the curve,” that is not the time to stage a global “celebration” that, while uplifting, is totally unnecessary and, amid the current health crisis, poses a clear public danger.

To say Canada did the right thing is an understatement. It may mean the Olympic dreams of some elite athletes will never come true, but obviously lives matter more than laurels.

With a bit of nudging from Team Canada, the IOC has wisely rescheduled the Games for the first time in peacetime. In 2021, the Olympic motto might justifiably be amended to read: “Faster, higher, stronger … and safer.”