Postponing the Olympics was inescapable, says former Olympics gold medalist

Abhinav Bindra, the only man who has won a gold medal for India in an individual competition in the Olympic Games, believes that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was left with no other option but to postpone the 2020 Olympics under the ongoing circumstances

Only a couple of days ago, the IOC president Thomas Bach had said that the committee was not contemplating postponing the Olympics just yet despite the adverse affects of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide as there was a lot of time for the Olympics to start.

According to Bindra, it was not just about the date of the Olympics. There are a lot of things which precede the Olympics which include qualifying tournaments as well, a lot of which had to take place in April.

But, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all the qualifying tournaments for various sports were about to get called off and there was confusion regarding the qualification of the athletes. 

Secondly, the athletes were also not being able to train properly because of the lockdown in various countries around the world, which was why most of the athletes were in favor of the Games being postponed.

Bindra is India’s representative in IOC Athletes Commission and he revealed that the athletes let the commission know about the issues that they were facing and the commission let the IOC know what the situation was from athletes’ perspective, after which the IOC made the decision.

“We got their feedback. It was pretty clear that an overwhelming majority of athletes wanted a postponement given the current circumstances,” Bindra was quoted as saying by ESPN.

“That (the athletes' response) was duly put forward to the Executive Board of the IOC through the IOC's Athletes Commission Chair. Of course, the feedback received was a very important factor in this decision,” Bindra further added.

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