No Olympia - what would that mean for Federer and Co.?
As the English newspaper The Times claims to have found out, there is agreement within the Japanese government that the Olympic Games in Tokyo should also be canceled for 2021.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jan 22, 2021, 08:02 am
A few days ago, Thomas Bach, the controversial President of the International Olympic Committee, reaffirmed that the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which had been postponed last year, should take place in the summer of 2021. But this will probably not work: As The Times reports, the Japanese government has already decided internally to cancel the games due to the corona pandemic. And to apply for the next possible free date in 2032. In 2024 the Olympic Circus is supposed to stop in Paris, four years later in Los Angeles. The only thing left to do now is to find an elegant way to get the bad news out.
Even if tennis does not play a prominent role at the Olympics, a cancellation of Tokyo would of course have far-reaching consequences here too. For sport as a whole - and especially for some athletes.
Emotional scenes in Rio 2016
The tournament organizers, who want to carry out their events in summer 2021, will take the probable end with mixed feelings. Sympathy for the athletes who can now not apply for Olympic precious metal. But also a certain relief that the tennis circus is not threatened with similar deadlines as in 2016. The ATP and the WTA can continue with their plans, which are already difficult in these times, without having to consider an Olympic break.
One of the season highlights does not apply to the players. The Olympic tennis tournament does not have the reputation of a Grand Slam event, anyone who remembers the emotional images of Rio de Janeiro (when Juan Martin del Potro had to face Novak Djokovic in round one - and in the end made it to the final, that he lost to Andy Murray ) knows what the Olympics mean to many athletes.
Federer's last attempt at single gold in Tokyo
Roger Federer, for example, who named Tokyo as one of his three goals for the season. Besides Wimbledon and the US Open. The almost 40-year-old Swiss won gold in doubles with Stan Wawrinka in Beijing in 2008 and silver in singles in London in 2012. Rio had to overturn Federer due to injury, Tokyo should have been the last attack on gold.
Dominic Thiem, in turn, had planned his Olympic premiere for Tokyo. The Austrian discovered his love for the five rings late, but Japan in the summer of 2021 would have been worth a trip to him. The other side of the coin: If the games are canceled, Thiem could serve in Kitzbühel in the summer - certainly a highlight for Austrian tennis fans.
Rafael Nadal has already won gold twice (2008 in singles, 2016 with Marc Lopez in doubles), the Spaniard even wanted to get a triple scarf in Tokyo. And maybe even give the mixed doubles alongside Garbine Muguruza. And speaking of triple: the last two gold medals in the men's singles went to Andy Murray. The fact that the Briton will get his third in a row in Roland Garros in 2024 can only be imagined with great imagination.