40-Year Olympic Curse strikes again: Tokyo Olympics postponed, a repeat of 1940, 1980 fiasco?
Earlier, only the wars have canceled the Olympics. It’s for the first time ever that the spread of the deadly virus has caused the cancelation of world Games.
NEW DELHI. Five days before Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach decided to postpone the Tokyo Olympics 2020 by one year because of COVID-19 pandemic, Japan’s deputy PM Taro Aso had sensed it right saying that 40-year Olympic curse loomed large over Japan.
History explains it better about this curse struck the Olympics at regular intervals of 40 years; in 1940 (Japan) and 1980 (Russia, the erstwhile USSR).
In 1940, Japan had to cancel the Summer and Winter Olympics due to World War-II as the next Summer Olympics happened eight years later in London in 1948, and Japan had to wait for 24 years to host the Games again in 1964.
Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Italy in 1944, too, were axed due to WW-II.
In 1980 after a gap of 40 years, the ‘curse’ struck again, as a section of countries including the US, China, and Japan boycotted the Moscow Olympics to register their protest against the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan.
The US had led the boycott as more than 60 countries refused to send their team to Moscow.
And yet again after a ‘stipulated’ interval of 40 years, the Olympic curse resurfaced in 2020, and this time its Japan again.
On Tuesday, March 24, the Japan PM Shinzo Abe and IOC President Thomas Bach agreed to postpone the Tokyo Olympics 2020 by one year but not later than summers 2021 citing spread COVID-19 pandemic as a reason.
However, the Summer Olympics will continue to be called the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games 2020, even if these happen in 2021. The Olympic torch which had arrived in Fukushima about a week back will continue to be displayed here only.
“The IOC president and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community,” said the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and the IOC in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The WHO had consulted with both parties on Tuesday about the accelerating pandemic.
The number of people infected with COVID-19 worldwide is about 10,000 less than 400,000, and the number of deaths reported so far is over 17,000.
