Well, this newsletter should be about how the Olympics happening right now
But they were postponed. So here's a roundup of random news for you!
Hi all -
A shorter newsletter for you this week. I look at the Olympics, which are supposed to be happening right now but instead were postponed for one year. And I round up some big performances and news from the past week, including the announcement that Gabriela DeBues-Stafford will be moving to Portland to train with the Bowerman Track Club, as soon as it’s safe to do so, of course.
Let’s get to it.
— Erin @ Run the North
The 2020 Olympics were supposed to start this past week
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were supposed to run from July 24 to August 9, 2020. As you know, they were cancelled because of the COVID pandemic. Ever since the postponement was announced, there has been a lot of questions and uncertainty about what these Games — which could be taking place in a world that’s still in the middle of a pandemic or a world that’s past one — will look like.
I’ve rounded up what I could to answer as many questions as I can. But generally, no one knows what will happen. But everyone involved is doing their damnedest to make the Games happen. There’s too much (ie. too much money) at stake.
🏟A good news story: venues for 2021 have been secured! There will not be many changes to the planned venues from what was planned for 2020 and what will happen in 2021.
🎽And more good news: sports and events will not be cut. World Athletics released the track & field schedule this week. Track & field events will take place from July 30 to August 8.
🏔If the events that were moved to Sapporo (the marathon and the racewalking events) are successful, it could bode well for Sapporo to win a bid to host the 2030 Winter Games. The northern Japanese city previously hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972. There’s not much in the Associated Press article, but considering that hosting the Olympics is getting less desirable for cities, it’s an interesting thing to think about.
❓But don’t get too excited, there are still a lot of unknowns. Like whether athletes will need to quarantine, how physical distancing will work, can fans even attend or if it will be even safe for athletes from all countries to come. Plans are in the works, but it’s hard to know what the world is going to look like in a year. From CBC Sports:
[IOC president Thomas] Bach, speaking earlier in the week, said empty venues were an option — but not a preference — in the long list of possibilities for Tokyo.
"It includes all different countermeasures: quarantine, you name it," Bach said. "But, Olympic Games behind closed doors is clearly something we do not want. We are working for a solution of the Olympic Games which, on the one hand is safeguarding the health of all the participants, and on the other hand is also reflecting the Olympic spirit."
❓In fact, we still aren’t sure if the Games will even happen. Everyone is working on their best laid plans, but it’s too soon to know. From the New York Times:
The unpredictable nature of the virus is making it impossible for officials to say definitively that the Games will happen or, if they do, what they might look like.
Maybe there won’t be spectators. Maybe only people living in Japan will be able to attend. Or maybe only those from countries where the virus is under control. Will there be an Olympic village, the traditional home for the roughly 10,000 competitors? Will athletes from the United States, where the pandemic shows no signs of abating, be allowed to attend?
🚩Dick Pound, a Canadian International Olympic Committee member, said this week that if Tokyo 2020(1) gets cancelled again, things don’t look great for the 2022 Winter Olympics set for Beijing. It’s purely speculation at this point, but there’s so much we don’t know about this virus and how it will play out long-term. From CBC Sports:
“Taking the political side out of it for the moment, say there is a COVID problem in July and August next year in Tokyo, it is hard to imagine there is not going to be a knock-on effect in the same area five months later,” Pound told Reuters in a phone interview.
The Beijing Olympics could be further complicated by a number of political showdowns, including an increasingly unstable and volatile situation in Hong Kong and an American election that could see U.S./China relations as one of the main issues.
🎟The Salt Lake Tribune has a nice article comparing this scenario to what it was like for Utah to host the 2002 Winter Olympics in the months after 9/11. It’s not directly comparable, of course, but it’s interesting:
Bullock’s experience overseeing the 2002 Games gives him unique insight into the headache-inducing issues organizers of the Tokyo Game are wrestling with right now. He remembers how everything paused — ticket sales, sponsor interest, the construction of tent cities around each venue — in the weeks after the twin towers of the World Trade Center fell.
🥇Through it all, athletes are slowly returning to training and doing their best to remain focused on their goals and hopeful they will have a chance to chase their dreams. CBC Sports spoke to several athletes and coaches as the second one-year-to-mark passed:
“There's a pandemic going on and that just makes you realize that there's more important things in life than sports,” [swimmer Brent Hayden] said. “Deep in my heart this was something that I really wanted to do and I believe anything is possible.”
One year out, athletes once again are eyeing Tokyo. This time with a new appreciation for what they do and what it all means — and in the midst of their journeys, learning about the redemptive power of sport.
Gabriela DeBues-Stafford is joining Bowerman Track Club
Canadian middle-distance runner Gabriela DeBues-Stafford made a surprising announcement this week: she is leaving her training group in Scotland and joining the Bowerman Track Club. She will move to Portland in the fall and has been coached by the team’s leader, Jerry Schumacher, remotely in the mean time.
Gabriela ran at the University of Toronto and then moved to Scotland in 2018 to train with British 1,500m record holder Laura Muir and her coach Andy Young. In 2019, Gabriela broke eight Canadian records and became the first Canadian woman to break 4:00 in the 1,500m. She currently owns six different Canadian records, including the 1,500m and the 5,000m.
But she and her husband, Rowan, returned to Canada unexpectedly in March because of the COVID pandemic. Since then, Gabriela decided she wanted to find a training situation closer to home. According to an interview with Canadian Running, she made the decision to join Bowerman because she missed her family, she wants to be more involved in the Canadian running community, the depth and variety of the team bodes well for a long-term career should she want to go up in distance and, well, training with Shalane Flanagan didn’t hurt either.
The Bowerman Track Club training group includes Shelby Houlihan, the American record holder in the 1,500m and the 5,000m, and Karissa Schweizer, who is hot on Shelby’s heels. Other women in the group include steeplechase specialists Colleen Quigley and Courtney Freichs, triathlon-Olympic-gold-medallist-turned-marathoner Gwen Jorgensen and marathoner Amy Cragg.
It also includes fellow Canadian Moh Ahmed, the Canadian 5,000m and 10,000m record holder, who recently became the 10th fastest 5,000m runner in the world.
Moh Ahmed runs 3:34.89 in 1,500m in BTC intrasquad meet
Speaking of the Bowerman Track Club, they held their third intrasquad meet on July 21.
In the first meet, Moh Ahmed ran 3:39.84 in the 1,500m on June 30 to finally dip below 3:40and set a new PB.
In the second on July 10, Moh ran the 5,000m and completely crushed it, running 12:47.20 to break his own Canadian record and become the 10th fastest man ever in the world at the distance.
On Tuesday, he returned to the 1,500m and bettered his personal best to 3:34.89, which makes him the fifth fastest Canadian man at the distance.
Here’s the new top 5:
Kevin Sullivan: 3:31.71
Graham Hood: 3:33.94
Nate Brannen: 3:34.22
Charles Philibert-Thiboutot: 3:34.23
Moh Ahmed: 3:34.89
Moh spoke to Canadian Running this week and put his #1 goal out there: to win Olympic gold:
Ahmed says this has always been the goal, but now he’s truly a contender. “It’s no longer a dream to run those times and do those things. I’ve been building up the courage and confidence to say with full certainty that I’m capable of Olympic gold. Bekele, El Guerrouj, Kipchoge – I want to be that too. When you’re a kid it’s a dream, but now it’s a reality.”
PanAm Toronto memories are popping up on Instagram
Last week, I wrote about the 2015 PanAm Games in Toronto and their legacy, five years later. I’m really surprised there hasn’t been more coverage, especially during a time of not a lot of sports because of the pandemic. Why isn’t CBC (who held the broadcast rights) airing the gold medal basketball games, the gold medal track performances, etc?
But Athletics Canada got the memo and some Canadian athletes are sharing their memories on Instagram:
Lanni Marchant posted about winning bronze in the 10,000m. The gold medallist in the photo is future Boston marathon winner Des Linden.
Nikita Holder posted about winning bronze, her first international medal in the 100m hurdles
Sasha Gollish shared a picture of herself with Nicole Sifuentes after they went 2-3 in the 1,500m
That’s it for this week! If you’re reading this online or it was forward to you by a friend, you can subscribe here:
Run the North comes out on Mondays.
Next week, I’ll take a deep dive into every track medal won by Canada at the Olympics. Because why not. I’ll see you then.