Dayrit says money not issue

MANILA, Philippines — Former POC president Celso Dayrit said yesterday he’s convinced the IOC isn’t holding back on the decision to postpone the Tokyo Olympics because of money, instead citing the athletes and calendar as the key factors in trying to preserve the schedule from July 24 to Aug. 9 despite the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s a difficult decision,” said Dayrit, an Olympism lecturer and the Fencing Confederation of Asia president. “I don’t think money is the concern. Sponsors won’t go away.  If the decision is to postpone, the question is up to when? Maybe, we could reset to late September or the whole month of October. Beyond October, we’ll be moving into the winter months. If we reset it to next year, it should be in the summer. That would mean a reevaluation of the qualifying standards. Right now, the report is 43 percent of the Olympic slots has been allocated. It’s possible that after a year, qualifying standards will have changed and all of a sudden, the credibility of the qualified athletes will be in doubt.”

Dayrit said a postponement seems inevitable. “But for how long?” he wondered. “For a few months to a maximum of one year? 2022 is impossible since there will be the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February, the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September and the Youth Olympics in Senegal in October. The World Cup of football will be held in Qatar on Nov. 21-Dec. 18, 2022. To postpone it to 2021, it must be in the summer but the IFs (International Federations) need to adjust their qualification guidelines without being unfair to athletes and teams already qualified. This can be done if the IOC will allow to increase the number of athletes and maybe, add two to four competition days.”

Dayrit pointed out that the World Championships in athletics and swimming will be staged in the summer of 2021 but “those could be rescheduled if the IOC will request.” He added, “I don’t think the Olympics will be moved to 2022 … if ever, it would be the first time that all three Olympic Games – winter, summer, youth) will be in the same year … that is hugely problematic for the IOC, the participating NOCs (National Olympic Committees) and bad for the sponsors and spectators.”

In Olympic fencing, Dayrit said entries for the team events in men and women have been finalized and only 24 slots remain vacant in the individual events where there are 204 participants. The 24 slots will be determined in the continental qualifications for Asia/Oceania, Africa, Europe and the Americas.  

“We’re almost done in fencing and if you factor in the swimming and athletics wildcards and sports that rely on world rankings for qualification, we might have more than 50 percent of athletes already lined up for the Olympics,” said Dayrit. “If there is a postponement of a year, it’s possible some athletes could emerge better than those who previously qualified. Of course, that’s a hypothetical situation. The Solomonic solution is to keep the qualified athletes and open up more slots for other athletes. This will mean a serious rethinking of the qualifying process. It’s a reason why the decision to postpone or not isn’t easy.”