US should join Canada in 2020 Olympics boycott if games not postponed

The United States should join Canada in 2020 Olympics boycott if games are not postoned due to coronavirus pandemic.

On Sunday night, just hours after reports that the Olympic Committee would meet to discuss postponing the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in light of the coronavirus pandemic, Canada announced it would not send it’s athletes to the games if the committee voted to hold the games, as planned.

Canada is the first country to be potentially withholding athletes, but they should not stand alone. The United States should join with Canada and demand the games be postponed.

“The COC and CPC urgently call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone the Games for one year and we offer them our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring,” said an official statement from the Canadian Olympic Committee (h/t CBC.ca) While we recognize the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community.”

There are many issues that could arise from keeping the Olympics as scheduled. Most of the world is in quarantine, thus these athletes are not to be training. If they fear the games will go on as scheduled they may put themselves and others at risk of the virus by training anyway.

The games themselves could also put the citizens of the world at risk if the virus is not contained by July 24, 2020, opening day. We’ve seen sports all over the world shutting down due to the CDC recommending people not gather in groups of 50 or more and the President of the United States, Donald Trump, asking for groups of 10 or less.

The United States needs to take a stand, along with other countries to force the Olympic Committee to do what’s best for the good of the people.

The coronavirus first emerged in Dec. 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China. To date, more than 100,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide and the virus has been identified in more than 120 countries, including the United States.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.