Athletes who have already qualified for Olympics will keep their spots despite coronavirus delay
Athletes who have already qualified for the now-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics will be able to keep their spots and won’t have to re-qualify, the International Olympic Committee announced on Friday.
There are 11,000 athletes expected to compete in 2020 Olympics — whenever they’ll eventually be held — and according to an IOC official, 57 percent of them have already qualified. With the timing of the Olympics now unknown, scheduling numerous events to re-qualify over 6,000 athletes would be extremely difficult — and that would be in addition to rescheduling every other qualifying competition that’s been postponed so the rest of the 11,000 athletes can get qualified in their respective sports.
Redoing qualifiers would be a nightmare
Keeping their qualified spots was a major concern for 2020 Olympians, who spend significant time training for qualifying seasons or individual competitions. Summer Rappaport, the US triathlete who was the first American to qualify for the 2020 Olympics back in August, recently spoke to Yahoo Sports about what a nightmare it would be to re-qualify in just her own sport.
“It’s most likely not gonna be an issue, but nobody really knows anything right now because it’s so unprecedented,” Rappaport said. “I mean, there’s a lot of legal implications with setting qualifying criteria. So, I mean, everybody has to – USA Triathlon can’t really set their new criteria until the International Triathlon Union, which is our governing body, sets their new qualification criteria, and then can’t do anything until the IOC has new dates. And also probably until it’s clear when we can race again, and like, what they’re gonna do with Olympic qualifying points.
“Yeah, so it’s going to be a process. Obviously – when criteria is set in the first place, it has to be cleared with legal, and a committee, and an ombudsman. So yeah, it’s definitely going to be a process, just for anybody in any sport really to know what is going to happen. I’m not super concerned, but I mean, we’ll see.”
“Let’s not even start that conversation”
You can understand how Olympic qualifiers might feel strongly about keeping their spots, but even an athlete who just missed out on qualifying can feel strongly about it. Desiree Linden, an American marathoner, finished in fourth place at qualifiers in February, but doesn’t want the race to be re-run — even though that would mean she’d get another shot to make it to her third Olympics.
When Yahoo Sports’ Henry Bushnell asked Linden if she’d even participate in a redo of the qualifiers, her immediate response was, “Oh, no. I would fight for those [who qualified].”
Linden, who already accepted that she wouldn’t be going to the Olympics, didn’t even want to think about getting another chance to compete, because of what it would mean for Aliphine Tuliamuk, Molly Seidel, and Sally Kipyego — the three women who qualified for the Olympics right in front of her.
“Let’s not even start that conversation,” she said. The three qualifiers “should be thrilled and only excited right now.”
With this major question settled, those who have qualified just have to focus on staying in top form during this time of social distancing and shelter-in-place. As for other Olympic hopefuls who have yet to participate in their qualifying events, they will likely have to wait until the new dates for the Olympics are announced to have any resolution. Numerous qualifiers in the US and around the world have been interrupted or postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and those will need to be rescheduled around the new Olympic calendar.
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