Olympic Postponement Will Cost Some Athletes Their Lone Chance at Glory

Even for the type of world-class athletes that compete in the Olympics, the chance for glory is a fleeting one.

Age, injuries and the rise of competitors make it difficult for the majority of Olympians to compete in more than one edition of the Games, according to FiveThirtyEight.

In fact, research shows 74 percent of all Summer Olympians participated in just one installment of the Olympics. Given that the Tokyo Games are now postponed until 2021, it is far from a given that all the competitors will be the same next summer as they were supposed to be in 2020.

Olympic historian Bill Mallon likened the situation to when the Olympic Winter Games were held within two years of one another in 1992 and 1994.

Using those as an example, Mallon attempted to determine how many athletes could expect to compete in both 2020 and 2021.

That is a much higher % of athletes competing in 2 Games than the standard, which as I’ve had quoted on here, is about 27-28%. With only 1 year between 2000-2001 suspect that the #s of athletes who can extend their career to make it to 2001 will increase. 4/

— Bill Mallon (@bambam1729) March 24, 2020

Other things to consider – there are minimum age limits for Olympic athletes in several sports. In some cases athletes who would not be eligible in 2000 will become eligible in 2001. Think especially of gymnastics for an example of this. 6/

— Bill Mallon (@bambam1729) March 24, 2020

Though moving the Games until next summer was clearly the right decision, it will certainly have consequences for a number of Olympic hopefuls.

“There will undoubtedly be a sizable contingent of athletes whose Olympic dreams would have come true this year but won’t next year — as a result of circumstances far beyond their control,” FiveThirtyEight wrote.

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