The Olympic Games are an event that attracts people from all corners of the world; its magnitude and glamour make it one of the most prestigious and popular events in the world, alongside the football World Cup. It features a wide variety of sports, as well as people who like to cheer for their national team in front of their TV screen. However, we missed this event in 2020 due to the global situation presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Everyone was heavily preparing for the competitions, but the entire Olympics had to be postponed for 2021. What can we expect from the 2021 Olympics then?

Cancellation

First of all, even though it was a completely justified decision, we cannot say that it did not come as a surprise, as prior to that, there have only been three occasions on which the Olympics were not held, and all of the three times it had happened because of the World Wars – in 1916, 1940, and 1944. Having had such a long streak, it was a huge shock to everyone that it had come to this. However, we cannot say that it was unjustified; there was hardly any knowledge on how to efficiently manage the outbreak of the virus. We are in a far better position to organize such an event now, even though it may raise a few eyebrows regarding the overall safety of everyone involved.

Audiences

One of the biggest questions in the new reality that has accompanied the pandemic is whether there will be any fans in attendance. Of course, last year, the answer would have been no, but we have seen significant improvements in that field, especially with the COVID vaccine that is successfully being applied all over the world as we speak. Even though hosting and safely managing fans from all over the world, the IOC has faith that such a thing will be possible at the 2021 Olympics.

Economic prospects

The world economy has already suffered a lot because of the pandemic, and Japan by no means escaped the financial strain. The Tokyo Olympics are said to be the most expensive ones yet, with over twenty-five billion dollars being in the game. The whole pandemic delay could have only added a couple of billions to the total count. Of course, this was not an unwise investment, as it was predicted that the Olympics will generate a lot of revenue for Tokyo, as well as Japan in general. However, it is unsure how many fans and tourists Japan will host during the Olympics, because of the international regulations regarding travel and the overall enthusiasm that people have for traveling in light of the pandemic.

Is there hope?

Of course – each and every one of us would like to go back to the way things were as soon as possible. The reality of things, however, dictates that it may not be such an easy task to do. We still have to go a long way before we have beaten COVID. That being said, we have a far better idea about what we can do to keep it in check; in a way, we can have our cake and eat it, too. While we cannot expect that the Olympics will be held as usual, we should be very glad that we have still managed to find a way to maintain this spectacular tradition.