As the world reacts to the lockdown measures enforced by many countries due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the world of international sport is no exception. The 2020 sporting calendar has been torn up as major sporting events across the globe are rescheduled.
This year would have been the turn of Tokyo to host the 2020 Olympic Games, but the organising body and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have taken the decision to postpone the event until July and August 2021.
Other major events to have been affected also include Euro 2020, with UEFA postponing the football tournament until June and July 2021. The London, Boston, Paris, Amsterdam and Barcelona Marathons have either been cancelled or postponed until later in the year, whereas the 2020 Tokyo Marathon, which went ahead on the 1st March, had just 200 elite runners instead of the usual 300,000 participants.
There have also been knock-on effects for some of the events and tournaments scheduled for next year as well. For instance the World Athletics Championships, which would have been held in Oregon, USA in August 2021, will now take place in July 2022 to avoid a clash with the new dates for the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, the International Tennis Federation has postponed 900 tournaments including Wimbledon, which has been cancelled for the first time since World War II.
Whilst the postponement of many sporting events can leave sportsmen and women initially disappointed, this gives them one more year to train and will make winning engraved awards in 2021 more satisfying.
