Tokyo Olympics Postponement Affects Oklahoma State Athletes

The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics affects thousands of athletes from around the world, including three Oklahoma State athletes.

The International Olympic Committee agreed, and announced on March 23 to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to 2021. The news comes after weeks of pressure to postpone the Tokyo games due to the coronavirus pandemic that’s sweeping the globe.

This marks the first time in the modern Olympics that the Summer Games have been postponed. Prior to this, the Olympics have only been cancelled during World War I and II: the 1916, 1940 and 1944 games.

The 2020 Summer Games were set to open on July 24 with the opening ceremony, where an estimated 10,000 athletes from around the world were set to participate in. It was also estimated that roughly 600,000 visitors were expected to make the trip to Tokyo for the games.

Three of the athletes could’ve been 2019 NCAA 1500m champion Sinclaire Johnson, former golfer Rickie Fowler and current Oklahoma State wrestler Daton Fix.

“Initially, I was very disappointed,” Johnson told Pokes Report. “As a track and field athlete, there are obviously races that we do throughout the year, but the ultimate goal is to try and make the Olympic team and represent the USA at the highest level. So, to have [the games] postponed for a year, especially since my number one goal this year was to make the Olympic team, it was a little bit heartbreaking initially. But everyone’s in the same position as I am right now, so it’s kind of hard to feel sorry for myself; I’m glad that they’re just postponed and not canceled. I’m just going to control what I can control and work hard another year in hopes to make the Olympic team next year.”

Johnson turned pro in 2019 following her junior season at Oklahoma State where she finished as an NCAA champion in the 1,500 meters. What’s more impressive is she did so by posting a time of 4:05.98, a time that set the NCAA Outdoor Championships’ meet record and did so in near 100-degree weather.

Fast forward a month and she shaved over two seconds off that time at the U.S. 1500m final on July 27 in Des Moines, Iowa. She posted a personal best 4:03.72, missing out on a spot on the World Championship team by less than a quarter of a second.

While she won’t get the chance to try and make the Olympic team this year, she was optimistic about an extra year of training.

“This obviously being my first year as a pro, I was looking forward to racing against a lot of people at the elite level since I haven’t gotten the chance to race against them before,” Sinclaire told Pokes Report. “So, having that taken away kind of stings a little bit because I won’t have that experience going into next year. But it does allow me to train a little bit harder and increase my volume a little bit more knowing I don’t have to be race ready for another year. It’ll be nice to be able to train without interruptions, because usually we have a race that we’ll have to go down in training a little bit to peak for. So, having that out of the question, I’ll be able to get some solid months in of training.”

As for Rickie Fowler, he was sitting a few spots below the cut-off line in order to qualify for Team USA. Fowler must be in the top-15 of the golf world rankings by June 22, 2020. Before the stoppage in play a few weeks ago, Fowler checked in at No. 27 in the rankings. There was still a possibility of events being rescheduled between now and the end of June, but now Fowler will have another year to try and qualify.

Fowler competed for Team USA in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The IOC released the following statement on the postponement:

"President Bach and Prime Minister Abe expressed their shared concern about the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and what it is doing to people’s lives and the significant impact it is having on global athletes’ preparations for the Games.

In a very friendly and constructive meeting, the two leaders praised the work of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and noted the great progress being made in Japan to fight against COVID-19.

The unprecedented and unpredictable spread of the outbreak has seen the situation in the rest of the world deteriorating. Yesterday, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the COVID-19 pandemic is "accelerating". There are more than 375,000 cases now recorded worldwide and in nearly every country, and their number is growing by the hour.

In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.

The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present. Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan. It was also agreed that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020."