NOCs Face Uphill Road to Tokyo

(ATR) Athletes may now have clarity with the rescheduled dates for the Tokyo Games in 2021, but for the 206 National Olympic Committees the picture remains cloudy.

NOCs face the unenviable task of reversing course, undoing aspects of what has already been done and attempting to minimize financial setbacks in the process.

"At the moment we must stabilize the situation and minimize losses," Czech Olympic Committee president Jiri Kejval tells Around the Rings. "Preparations for the Olympic Games and associated activities, such as the Olympic Festivals here in the Czech Republic and the Czech House in Tokyo, were running at full steam with four months to go to the planned start of the Games.

"Now, we must put the brakes on and preserve what we can," says Kejval, also an IOC member since 2018. "We are confident that all matters that the national Olympic committees resolve in cooperation with the organizers can be postponed.

"The entire situation is, of course, complicated by the measures introduced in face of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to which we have also halted our other projects.

"However, the health of us all is the most important things and it is a situation facing the whole world. I believe that together we will succeed," he said.

To proceed forward along the uncharted road to July of 2021, Kejval informs that the Czech NOC Sports Department is working in close contact with its national summer federations as well as the Czech NOC Athletes’ Commission, chaired by London 2012 modern pentathlon gold medalist David Svoboda. There is also direct contact with individual athletes.

Additional Costs and Logistics

Kejval says arrangements made directly with the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee shouldn’t bear additional costs, however re-arranging agreements with other bodies will be expensive.

"There are significant losses of course – I’m talking about private accommodations and mainly we had some kind of down payment on travelling, especially for camps before the Olympics and that kind of stuff," Kejval says. "And that will be pretty costly."

Veteran Czech NOC chef de mission Martin Doktor advises that numerous logistical tasks will now need to be undone. Dealing with already accumulated accreditation information is one necessary headache.

"A whole range of things, and we now need to sort them out," Doktor tells ATR."Where possible we will attempt simply to shift already prepared things, such as accommodation, to the following year and strive to minimize the associated costs.

"On the other hand, it is clear that all the gathered accreditation information will have to be updated next year and a range of other processes repeated."

Qualifications and Athlete Support

In terms of qualification for Tokyo 2020, the IOC has confirmed that athletes already qualified – about 57 percent of the total – will remain qualified.

Doktor says he is in close contact with athletes and the NOC athletes’ commission to plot the new course.

"Some athletes would have preferred the spring, but overall, the summer dates are most suitable," Doktor says. "We hope that things will soon return to normal in our society so that athletes are able to train as normal.

"With regards to preparations, we will move forward based on the new deadlines that the organizing committee gives us. A number of things are already in progress, some things we have already prepared and we will put them on ice for a year, while other things will simply have to be delayed," he said.

Kejval says that the Czech NOC is doing whatever possible to support its athletes during this time of crisis.

"Most athletes are now training at home, and we are therefore, along with other institutions, trying to secure more appropriate training conditions for our athletes as soon as circumstances allow," Kejval says. "We would like to continue with the support programs that we already have in place for athletes."

Kejval says he hasn’t found it necessary to reach out directly to fellow European NOCs to strategize about the revised direction ahead.

"No, the priority is now ensuring everyone is healthy," he says. "All national Olympic committees are dealing with similar issues and have their own concerns."

Written and reported by Brian Pinelli in Prague

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