Athletes are schedule-oriented by nature.
Their training targets are determined weeks, months and, sometimes, years in advance to a specific competition, event or tournament, with every detail carefully determined to peak at that exact moment.
Nutrition, sleep, screen time — it is all monitored.
Canadian marathon champion Trevor Hofbauer breaks his training into a 16-to-20-week block prior to an event.
“I have everything planned out for the Olympics on August 9th,” said the 28-year-old Calgarian, who is Canada’s fastest marathon runner at the moment. “I know what that would look like.”
Suddenly, however, Hofbauer’s training plans have been halted completely.
Late Sunday night, the Canadian Olympic Committee made the decision to pull their athletes out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to the global spread of COVID-19. It would have been Hofbauer’s first Games.
On Monday, Canadian Dick Pound, an International Olympic Committee board member, told USA Today the Games will be postponed until 2021, although no official news has been released.
When that happens, it means athletes like Hofbauer and others in many disciplines will have their schedules flipped upside down and thrown out the window.
Many have had to deal with repercussions of COVID-19 and social distancing already with their high performance workout facilities temporarily closing.
“I think if it gets deferred a year, it will affect some athletes,” Hofbauer said. “Malindi Elmore just broke a Canadian (marathon) record in Houston … She’s 39 years old. For somebody like her, a year doesn’t benefit you because of the age factor. For someone like myself, I’m not even at my peak yet. I could wait another year and not really lose anything … I kind of feel for those athletes who are older and trying to qualify for the Games.
“What a year from now looks like? No one knows.”
Hofbauer believes that he would be locked into a spot in 2021 based on the verbiage used on the criteria.
But if that changes? Would he need to re-qualify?
Would every athlete and team need to re-qualify?
“There’s a lot of uncertainty with that for athletes in multiple sports,” pointed out Steph Labbe, netminder for the Canadian women’s soccer team. “Looking at certain sports with athletes that have already qualified, what does that mean for them?”
For example, Labbe’s girlfriend, Georgia Simmerling, is a Canadian track cyclist. The entire 2019-20 season was filled with World Cups and world championships leading into qualifications for the 2020 Olympic Games.
After that, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) calendar is blank.
“Between now and if the Olympics are next summer, there are no races planned so she’s thinking, ‘What am I going to be doing for the next year and a half? How are we supposed to compete?’” Labbe explained. “Does that change their qualification process? Are they going to have to re-qualify? Are there going to be new structures? And if you are qualified, what does your training block look like now for the next year and a half?”
In its statement, the Canadian Olympic Committee, along with the Canadian Paralympic Committee, also urgently called on the IOC to postpone the games for one year.
“We offer them our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring,” it said. “While we recognize the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community.”
The decision was not arrived at lightly, according to Anne Merklinger, chief executive officer of Own the Podium.
“This is gut-wrenching for athletes,” she said. “I think all of us that were involved in contributing to the decision certainly understand the pain many of them are feeling (Monday) and over the time that passes over the next few weeks.
“I think everyone believes that health and safety of athletes, coaches, staff, their families and their communities and our country is the No. 1 priority. This is the right decision in terms of protecting the health and safety of everyone that is involved in sport and their communities.”
Calgary-based wrestler and defending Olympic gold medalist Erica Wiebe said this is an unprecedented situation. But the Olympics — even if they are deferred — should still happen.
“Having a 2021 Olympic Games, it would have a huge economic impact on the organizing committee,” she said. “But this whole pandemic is having a huge economic impact on the world. What I think the Olympics symbolizes is the world to come together to showcase that when we do come together that things are going to be alright. Every Olympic Games we have stories of hope, of joy, of underdogs rising to the challenge.
“The Games should go forward. Postponed, but they can be such an amazing opportunity to showcase to the world that we’re stronger together.”
Labbe agreed.
“This is bigger than sport,” she said. “There’s time for the world to grab ahold of it and hopefully get it under control and not feel the rush of hoping it’s ready. Even if we just delay the Olympics by a couple of months, who is to say this curve won’t flatten and come back again?
“It gives time for all of the uneasiness to settle and for all of these questions to be answered in a smart and proper way so people aren’t put at risk and don’t feel rushed to get things done.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
