Like Tokyo 1940, like Tokyo 2020

Our Reporter

History has a way of repeating itself and so it seems  following the COVID-19 enforced   postponement  of the  Tokyo 2020 Olympics  which unfortunately  confirmed  that the  quadrennial event is usually befuddled  by unforeseen circumstances every 40-year circle.

With the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games have been postponed to no later than the summer of 2021, the same scenario panned out in 1940 when the summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad, were originally scheduled to be held from September 21 to October 6, 1940, in Tokyo, Japan but was rescheduled for Helsinki, Finland, to be held from July 20 to August 4, 1940.

But the  games was eventually  cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II. Helsinki eventually hosted the 1952 Summer Olympics while Tokyo  hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Unlike the 1940 edition which was postponed due to the World War 11, the Coronavirus known as COVID-19 pandemic , has prompted IOC and OC to shift Tokyo 2020  to 2021.

Incidentally,  usual 40-year circle hiatus  that  has  plagued  the Olympics for year also  happened in 1980 albeit  due to the Soviet–Afghan War.

The 1980 Games were the first Olympic Games to be staged in Eastern Europe, and remain the only Summer Olympics held there, as well as the first Olympic Games to be held in a Slavic language-speaking country.

But the 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad in the  Soviet Union, in present-day Russia,  was nearly scuttled as most nations boycotted the games because of the Soviet–Afghan War.

Eighty nations were represented at the Moscow Games – the smallest number since 1956. Led by the United States, 66 countries boycotted the games entirely because of the Soviet–Afghan War.

But IOC President, Thomas Bach said the decision to postpone  the  Tokyo 2020 Olympics was “about protecting human life”, with 11,091 athletes expected at the Games along with 90,000 volunteers, and hundreds of thousands of officials and spectators.

Tokyo was spending some $12.6 billion to host the Games, according to its latest budget, and experts believe a postponement could cost it some $6 billion in the short-term before recouping it when they eventually go ahead.