Thanks to the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, sporting events in Europe have been disrupted, the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix ,set for April, has been cancelled. More ominously, Japan’s J League has postponed all domestic football matches to the middle of March while the field of the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday, 1 March, has been restricted to elite runners only.

Tokyo is to host the Summer Olympics which start on 24 July and the question is will the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic cause the cancellation of the greatest show on earth.

For now, the International Olympic Committee is sticking to its guns, saying that the Olympics will go ahead as scheduled and that cancelling them would be a “worst-case scenario”.

One IOC committee member said that any final decision to hold the games, or not, will only be made in late May – two months before the Games take place when final preparations are ramping up.

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It is the period before the games when when security concerns have to be met, food arrangements completed, and the final touches are made to the Olympic village, hotel accommodation and media facilities.

Any thoughts of cancelling the games are a major headache for the authorities, and the host country, but it is sheer heartache for the sports people who have spent years of their lives getting ready to represent themselves and their countries on the world stage.

Pierre de Courbetin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, said the true Olympic contender should not only be as physically perfect as possible in his or her discipline but he/she must also be honest, generous, and loyal to their homeland.

To reach such perfection is the culmination of an idea often conceived in childhood and perfected through years of sacrifice and hard work. It is intense dedication in the face of doubt and pain that helps the Olympians rise above other talented athletes in their country and still be able to face the best in the world on the Olympic stage.

And all this preparation of a young person’s lifetime is a striving for the ultimate performance that is mostly just a few minutes away from glory … or defeat.

All this Olympic striving is joining in battle with other nations without shedding blood (unless you are a boxer) in honour of one’s nation and an ancient ideal of peace and comradeship. It is a fire that nurtures the young and does not destroy.

For now, all these hundreds of athletes around the globe will be trying to forget the pestilent Covid-19 and the danger it poses to their dreams and years of hard work. They will try to focus on the task ahead and hope that the pandemic will have played itself out by the end of May. Let the games begin…

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