2020 Olympics canceled/postponed?

    It's my opinion that, besides a shit-ton of money being involved at stake, for virtually everyone involved, the single biggest obstacle to cancelling Olympic Games is psychological/prestige.


    Think about it. OG are the bigest sporting event in the world. In fact, they may well be the biggest and most watched social event on this planet, period. They have never been postponed or cancelled since WWII. To cancel them (like we have cancelled or postponed nearly everything else this spring and summer, would be tantamount to admitting that the life and human civilisation stood still for months on end. Now, in 21st century. That is not something that will be swallowed or forgotten easily, especially in coming years/decades.

    57% of athletes are qualified at this point. That's a lot of work to do when nobody should be working, not to mention actually training for the biggest sport event in these athletes' lives.


    I believe they all know the OGs will be cancelled. It's just a matter of documenting it as the right decision and timing the announcement. As Janko suggests, it'll be a big blow.

    Michał Kubiak who still lives in Japan after season said that all preparations from Japanese site go according to the plan and there is no sign that OG would be postponed.
    He said that people live normally and only pools are closed, there are no concerts or sport events while pubs or restaurants are open as always.

    I also think it is a matter of time to hear the news about postponing OG. I don't think it is a good idea to cancel it. Probably postponing it for a year makes more sense. Even this madness is gone after 3 months, which I doubt, these athletes need months to train and get in shape for such a big event. It would be unfair to rush things. Better wait for another year and do it properly

    Maybe postponed, not cancelled, but not happening in July 2020.


    It creeped me out to see Abe say he wants to 'hold the games "perfectly" to show the world ....' Seemed like a shout out to the dump (hat tip to ossubtus for the nickname)


    Inviting a million people, from all over the world, over to your house this summer doesn't seem like a perfect idea.

    Quote from sitenoise

    Maybe postponed, not cancelled, but not happening in July 2020.


    It creeped me out to see Abe say he wants to 'hold the games "perfectly" to show the world ....' Seemed like a shout out to the dump (hat tip to ossubtus for the nickname)


    Inviting a million people, from all over the world, over to your house this summer doesn't seem like a perfect idea.

    They could do it without spectators and quarantine the players 14 days before they get to the games. Most of the revenue is due to broadcasting from what i've learned and not ticket fees. Although, this will not help the local economy.

    It's not a matter of Japan only. Plenty of people from around the world will try to travel over to Tokyo in watch the games. No country in its current form can risk yet another spike of cases of COVID-19 months from now. It'd be a mess.

    Unofficial informant says that decision about postponing games was already taken.

    There is not final decision about final dates but there is no option that Games will be cancelled.
    Three new dates are:

    November 2020

    Summer 2021

    Summer 2022

    Maybe I’m a bit selfish but I really hope for nov 2020. I don’t want to loose this year for good. I hope that coming summer will heal the situation. But if medical authorities will give the opinion that 2021 would be better, then ok. Too many people dying to ignore this.