How will the pandemic change the Olympics

It was a unique year for Dutch sport. Competitions were disrupted, and some teams were sometimes only able to form three healthy players. In November, the second wave began, which was more devastating than the first. Cities like Almelo and Wageningen have imposed a ban on football. All over the country, young athletes have died: soccer players, athletes, wrestlers, and even an Olympian. Equestrian sport was discontinued because horses were essential to many funerals. Gloomy prediction Sports Magazine At the start of the epidemic, this was absolutely true: “This disease can be a serious problem in later matches.”

Is all this about the last year of corona? No, this is about the Spanish flu, which caused the sport to be completely disrupted in 1918. “A really bleak time, the end of 1918,” the magazine said sadly. Sports Review.

Do not dwell on the setbacks in detail

In 2020, international sport has had another bleak time to compete. Globally, 35 Olympic athletes have died from the effects of Corona, according to censuses of the official Olympedia.org website. The Olympics were postponed for the first time in peacetime. It was the first time they had been at the Paralympic Games. For the first time since World War II, the football season did not end in the Netherlands.

The sports world is not equipped to address such setbacks in detail. After a tragic loss, every footballer stutters and we must forget this match as soon as possible. Sports Memories only consist of lists of heroes and notable events. According to this mathematical logic, we must forget about the past year as soon as possible in order to make up for all that we lost in the past months in 2021. Then everything will be fine again.

Bread and wheels

We’ve seen this very positive outlook before. In December 1939, the French cycling leaders published the complete racing calendar for the following season, as if World War had not broken out a few months earlier. Some events were moved or canceled, but other than that, the French sporting life had to be treated as much as possible as if nothing had happened. The 1940 Tour de France was also included in the program. After all, people want bread and wheels.

Summarize “France just wants to do” Limburger Courier Nice together. “Perhaps for the better, however, the leadership of the French Cycling Federation, not less than the organizers, is commendable, that they are showing such an active stance under the current circumstances,” the newspaper added.

Six months later, few of these French ambitions were fulfilled. In fact, the Tour de France was only resumed in 1947, and this interruption – due to World War II – was the largest interruption of the event thus far.

the new look

The ambition of sport in 1940 was tied to a fractured society, just as it did again eighty years later in Corona. Not only are the heroes and highs that drive the sport’s history, but the drama and lows as well. In fact, it was precisely during the two World Wars that the Olympic movement took a completely new course twice. Without those wars, the Olympics would have looked very different now.

Immediately after World War I, the Olympic Flag consisting of five rings, designed by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee, was introduced. The first time it was used was in the Olympic Games of 1920 in Antwerp. The five rings symbolize the global connection of the sport, which remains the basic idea of ​​this sporting event. Countries should fight each other in the sporting field, according to de Coubertin, not on the battlefield. This world-famous symbol was the sport’s answer to a major social problem that occurred a hundred years ago.

Immediately after World War II, sports and physical exercise were used to guide patients with serious war injuries upon their return to society. Especially from the English village of Stoke Mandeville, under the leadership of neurologist Ludwig Guttmann, the foundations were laid for Paralympic sports and thus the Paralympics. This pioneering work was the mathematical solution to a major social problem 75 years ago.

Sport reconfigured itself during the greatest crises in modern history. This is why we must never forget the last year of the Corona, but we must actively look for a new shape in 2021.

Exercise after the pandemic

In the summer of 2020, a study by Bram Constandt and Annick Willem of Ghent University that could aid this research was published. Because of Corona, this academic duo has gone back exactly a century in time. “The Antwerp Games were also facing a public health crisis,” Konstandt and William wrote, referring to the Spanish flu. The number of participants at that time was of course much lower than it is now, but this does not change the fact that the International Olympic Committee faced new problems and issues.

Also according to Constandt and Willem, the 1920 Antwerp was a restart of the Olympic movement, with new ideas and symbols. So all Olympic speeches and announcements emphasized the social importance of sport in promoting peace and as an alternative to war.

A similar tour in strength

Exactly a hundred years later, the Olympic movement faces a similar round of strength. “Downsizing Tokyo 2020, and highlighting the voice of the athletes and the health of all participants, could give the Olympic movement a new momentum of international significance and significance.”

It is not only about the Olympic Games, but also about the Paralympics. More than ever, this disabled sporting event has great social value with millions of Corona patients worldwide, who must rebuild their lives. Sports and physical exercise can play an important role.

The 2021 games will probably be beautiful again with lots of new heroes and notable events, all of which are fun stories for enthusiasts. The largest social contribution of sport in the years to come is the Paralympics and all other forms of Paralympic sports. Because this is where the answer to sport lies the greatest social problem of our time.

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Five-year-old rings, like angel-braided bicycle tires

On August 14, 1920, the Olympic flag was shown to the public for the first time in Antwerp. It has been in a private safe in the US since 1932.