A Grip on Sports: The Olympics would burn brighter and safer if the Games were postponed a year

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Not sure if anyone did this, but when we were growing up, we used to look at the list of Summer Olympics, dreaming of someday competing in Paris or Athens or even Los Angeles. And we would notice the gaps. The one in 1916. The two in 1940 and 1944. Three Games canceled by war.

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• For some reason it made us really sad. Still does. Actually, we know the reason. Instead of competing in swimming or track or equestrian events, the youth of the world was fighting each other on battlefields from France to China and everywhere in between.

But such wars seemed like a thing of the past, or at least felt that way since the mid-1980s. After the Games themselves became war zones in a sense, as first Jimmy Carter then the Soviet Union used them as part of the Cold War’s weaponry. Our world has grown up since then, in many ways. Now the only Olympic battles are the ones concerning the Games’ cost and whether they are worth it in a modern world.

Until this year.

With the world engaged in a war with an insidious and invisible foe, COVID-19, the Games will not go on as scheduled. There is no chance the 200-plus nations that had planned to send athletes to Tokyo from July 24 to Aug. 9 will do so. Or should they.

It seems abundantly clear the coronavirus will not be eradicated by then. The pandemic may be under control in some sense, but there is little chance a vaccine or treatment will have been developed to create a safety net for the world’s population.

Sending thousands of athletes and millions of fans from around the world to one spot, then dispersing them back home afterward, seems like the height of lunacy. At least until there is some clarity about the ability to control this disease.

Luckily, even those folks who control the International Olympic Committee are coming to understand this. Sure, it took some prodding from individual sports committees from around the world and, in what looks to be pretty significant step, the Canadian Olympic Committee. But the IOC is starting to understand this year’s Olympics may need to be next year’s Olympics.

Delaying a year will be unprecedented. It will be hard. But, if the Games of the XXXII Olympiad are to be held, they will need to be held a year late.

The only other alternative is to add another blank line to the list of Summer Olympic Games, with the explanation “canceled due to coronavirus pandemic.”

No one wants that. Not even a nine-year-old kid dreaming of competing someday in Paris or Athens or Los Angeles.

• Our plan was to sleep in today. But it didn’t work. We read last night – almost two-thirds through William Manchester’s three-volume biography of Winston Churchill – and fell asleep before 10. So sleeping in meant waking up at 6:33 instead of 6:28.

Figured we might as well write. And link whatever stories we could find.

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Gonzaga: Before the NBA shutdown for the season (seemingly), Domantas Sabonis set a Pacers’ franchise record for double-doubles in a season. (FYI, I hold the S-R franchise record for Double-Doubles consumed in a season, set in 2008.) The former Gonzaga standout also talked with freelance writer Stephen Hunt for this story. … Elsewhere in the WCC, the women’s basketball team at BYU didn’t have its best season. … Tom Holmoe has led the Cougar athletic program for the past 15 years. He’s hired coaches, like Mark Pope, and set the agenda. … I don’t agree with the headline – I would give that honor to one of John Wooden’s teams, maybe the ones with the then-Lew Alcindor or the undefeated teams led by Bill Walton – but USF had a couple of incredible seasons in the 1950s.

WSU: Jason Hansen is ready to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. That news leads our local roundup for this week. … Around the Pac-12, two Colorado football players are trying to take the leap from small-town athlete to the NFL. … Arizona is in the grad transfer market as it heats up already for next basketball season. … Utah’s basketball players are from all over, making keeping track of how they are doing a tough enterprise.

Seahawks: The Hawks are stockpiling offensive linemen. According to the Times Bob Condotta they have 14 on their roster after adding another free agent to the list yesterday. … How has free agency gone thus far for Seattle?

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• Stay away from others please. The fewer people who end up on my wife’s floor at Sacred Heart, the better everyone’s chances are of surviving this insidious virus. It may be someone you love. Or even someone like myself and two others in my immediate family, all of whom just happen to be in high-risk groups. If any of us were to fall ill, you would miss this high-quality column each morning. Right? Anyone? Is this thing on? Oh well. Until later …