USA Track & Field Joins USA Swimming in Calling for Olympic Postponement

USA Track & Field, the national governing body for athletics akin to USA Swimming, has sent a letter to the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) requesting that they advocate for a postponement of the upcoming Olympic Games.

USATF has about 130,000 members, roughly a third of USA Swimming’s count. Athletics (which includes track & field, road running, and race walking) sits alongside swimming and gymnastics as the traditional “big three” of the Olympic sports world.

The letter from USATF, signed by CEO Max Siegel, echoes one sent out a day earlier by USA Swimming CEO Tim Hinchey in “respectfully requesting that the (USOPC) advocate to the IOC for the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.”

“We acknowledge that there are no perfect andswers, and that this is a very complex and difficult decision, but this position at least provides our athletes with the comfort of knowing that they will have adequate time to properly prepare themselves physically, mentally and emotionally to be able to participate in a safe and successful Olympic Games, and that they can shift their focus toward taking care of themselves and their families.”

A few hours after USA Swimming’s letter, the USOPC released a statement of its own saying that they had heard the concerns of athletes, and will make sure that those concerns are pushed forward to the IOC.

Athletes in the U.S. are facing varying levels of impact on their training as a result of the national shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. That includes the mandated closure by the governor of Colorado of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.