Can we expect anything for the summer olympics?

The Summer 2020 Olympics were postponed last year due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The new games are set to be held on July 23, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.  However, how will these games be different during a global pandemic with participants from all over the world? Mrs. Jaime Hall is an athletic trainer and sports medicine CTE educator at SJHS who previously worked at the University of Minnesota as an athletic trainer. There she trained mostly with the women’s hockey team. Several of the athletes Mrs. Hall worked with made it to the Olympics. Recently, a few of the hockey players joined a Google Meet with Mrs. Hall’s current class and chatted about playing in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018. 

In order to keep the girls safe and healthy, they weren’t allowed to eat out anywhere until the games were over. They had a special place where the U.S. provided chefs and nutritionists that were cooking for the girls.

“There’s a way to essentially keep them in their own bubble.” said Mrs. Hall. “But then you can look at other countries and maybe they don’t have the resources. Maybe those countries can only send a few athletes, or there could be those countries if the Olympics do go on that don’t want to send their athletes to put them more at risk.” 

There’s always a risk of a potential outbreak in any sport going on right now, but it just matters how we handle the situation.  Having testing available, wearing masks and socially distancing athletes would be a key role in staying safe. 

“Even if we can see right now that we can organize big sports events and complex sports even without a vaccine,” IOC President Bach said in a video message to athletes preparing for the upcoming Tokyo and Beijing Olympics. “But if we could add to this rapid testing and these vaccines to this toolbox, this would greatly help and assist us all and could make you even more confident about the safe environment in your Olympic games.”

With the Summer Olympics about five months away, we don’t know what the world will look like. The athletes are hopeful, as is the rest of the world, that the games will go through. Just like in 2018, when the girls were kept in their own bubble, the Olympics can proceed with proper precaution and safety measures.

Mrs. Hall poses with her son and two of the athletes she was an athletic trainer for at the University of Minnesota. The two went on to become gold medalists for the U.S. Olympic Women’s Hockey Team. photo provided by Jamie Hall