Italian Olympic swimmer Luca Dotto took to Twitter to comment on how fellow athletes have reacted to the news that the Tokyo Games have been postponed to 2021 over the coronavirus pandemic.
Datevi una regolata.. pic.twitter.com/QTQGKqzExZ
— Luca Dotto (@dottolck) March 25, 2020
Dotto’s tweet reads as follows:
“Give yourselves a break…
Having seen posts of desperate athletes, with captions complaining because they say they are upset and have made huge effort and sacrifices for nothing since the Olympics will be next year… guys, are we being honest?
The real worry is for those who are sick or who by the end of this outbreak will lose their jobs and will not know how to feed their family!!
We professional athletes are privileged and some of us are truly forgetting about that…”
News surrounding the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics sparked mixed reactions among athletes worldwide:
- Russia’s Andrei Minakov responded with an “emotional” reaction, which he later apologized for.
- Italy’s Federica Pellegrini shared mixed feelings.
Since the modern Olympics took place in Athens, Greece, in 1896, the Games had never been postponed.
Hence, athletes are witnessing an unprecedented event. The Olympic Games were canceled for reasons related to World War I and World War II in 1916, 1940 and 1944.
In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States boycotted the Moscow 1980 Games, and in response, the Soviet Union cold-shouldered the Los Angeles 1984 Games.
We reported that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is aiming for a timeframe anywhere between July and August of 2021 as the host date for the 2020 Games.
Tokyo 2020 was originally scheduled to kick off on July 24 and stretch through August 9 of this year. Hosting the Games during these dates next year would coincide with the 2021 FINA World Championships (July 16-August 1), although that wouldn’t be the case in terms of the World University Games, set to begin on August 16, 2021, and come to a close on the 27th of that month in the Chinese province of Chengdu.
Dotto is a two-time Olympian, having raced in London 2012 and Rio 2016. Among Dotto’s achievements stand the silver medal in the 50-meter freestyle at the Shanghai 2011 long course world championships or the European championship title in the 100-meter freestyle, which he accomplished in 2016.
Dotto has also won several titles at the European and World stages as part of the Italian squad in both the long course and short course editions.
He’s got a point.