First reported by SwimSwam Italy’s Giusy Cisale.
In an interview with Italian paper La Repubblica Sunday, Olympic champion Federica Pellegrini gave her take on the prospect of postponing or canceling the 2020 Olympic Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pelligrini, 31, has said that the upcoming games would be her last if she qualifies. Italy’s Olympic qualification meet, originally scheduled for March 17-21, was postponed with the Decree of the Council of Prime Ministers on March 8.
On a potential postponement of the Olympics, Pellegrini said she hopes the International Olympic Committee considers the impact on athletes, first and foremost.
“The Olympics in Tokyo? If they get moved a few months forward, I ask with my heart only one thing: think of the athletes, not your interests,” Pellegrini said, translated from Italian.
On the subject of a full cancellation, she said she could wait a year to compete, but doesn’t want to consider the option.
“At twenty I could approach an important sporting event in any situation and think about competing in it, now I have to calculate everything to the cent. If they slipped a year, I would wait. If it’s more than that, I won’t even think about it.”
She again stressed that the impact on athletes needs to be considered and respected. Pellegrini also added that all athletes need equal opportunity to qualify, whatever the outcome is.
“With my heart I am confident. […] I only ask that there be respect for the preparation and obviously for the health of the athletes,” she said. “I can train in the pool below the house, in safe conditions, but what about the others? We must decide quickly and give everyone equal opportunities.“
Asked if her preparation has changed in the meantime, Pelligrini said it’s business as usual – for the time being.
“For now, no, I am in line with what is expected with my coach, Matteo Giunta, but the problem is how to behave from here on out,” she said. “To replace Riccione [Olympic Trials], in Verona, we will do time trials just between us. Even if it’s not the same thing, I try to focus on this.
Nobody is training right now. Our Olympic Trials in Canada were cancelled. Our athletes will not even be prepared for an Olympics let alone be able to qualify. They need to cancel and have them next spring or summer. It sucks and I would love for them to continue but it simply is not going to happen.
All athletes will be devastated. All athletes qualified to compete have worked harder than most non-athletes can imagine. However, how many articles do we need to read about athletes basically saying “why me?” This IS a pandemic that we cannot yet predict the scope of. Please, swim swam, stop publishing these. Allow swimmers, their coaches and trainers, and their families to have dignity by showing solidarity.
I swam in the Tokyo Olympics in ’64. Because of the heat, they were held in October, a very good idea for anybody competing outdoors. Other than disrupting training schedules, I don’t see any problem with doing that again if they let everybody know right now,. The TV people could adapt. Japan could adapt. With enough forewarning, the athletes and coaches could adapt as well.
So many athletes have put everything on the line to get to this point. For an entire set of them, this is it. It’s their one and only chance.
But with no where to continue to train, pools closed, training facilities closed, complete disruptions to even living space, it’s no longer fair to anyone. It’s not fair to those who have their own pool to not have competition, it’s not fair to those desperate to find a pool to keep their dream alive and can’t, it’s not fair to countries who’ve cancelled Trials, it’s not fair to Tokyo…the whole thing isn’t fair. It’s horrendous and painful to the deepest fiber when sooooooo much has been sacrificed and dedicated to… Read more »
WSJ today reports a poll from Japan saying that 70% of Japanese do not want the Olympics to go on. The sooner people get the idea that it ain’t happening, the sooner we’ll get all people to take this seriously.
Ignoring the potential mess up here with the translation, there’s also a factor of thinking of the sport as a whole and individual athletes.
It seems even if the games go ahead, virtually every national trials would have to go ahead during the expected peaks of the virus in the West. Inevitably, some athletes will be ill at the time of their country’s trials.
There’s an element that, like if an athlete got injured or ill normally, that would suck, that is just how sport works. But, as a sport, do we want to risk our moment in the spotlight being depleted of some of its Peaty, Dressel, Ledecky type superstars?
The actual meaning of the interview got entirely lost in translation. What she basically said is, if they decide to go on with the Olympics, then they should let athletes know well in advance cause they can’t be left in the dark till the last minute. That’s what she meant by “think of the athletes, not your interest”.
I don’t think that was lost in translation at all. I read that pretty clearly in this quote: “With my heart I am confident. […] I only ask that there be respect for the preparation and obviously for the health of the athletes,” she said. “I can train in the pool below the house, in safe conditions, but what about the others? We must decide quickly and give everyone equal opportunities.”
Every time people of that age don’t want old timers to call them a kid, they verify why it happens. I’m sure lots of swimmers read this site. Plenty of them will be asked similar questions in forthcoming weeks and months. Use this example to think very carefully about what you say. People will indeed change opinions of you in a flash, and rightfully so. Everyone should treat this virus as if they already have it and are scared to pass it off to someone else, someone precious who may not be able to survive it. Once that clarity is reached then 4 years of training and sacrifice will own the proper level of perspective.