BERLIN – Last minute tickets? Hardship rules? Olympic
exceptions? Almost half of all the athletes intended to make up the
Tokyo Games have not yet qualified and with sport halted by the
coronavirus, uncertainty rules.
In Germany, the Olympic sports body DOSB is supposed to officially
nominate athletes from the Games between the end of May and early
July.
But with qualification events widely cancelled or postponed, this
plan is already fraught with difficulty.
Even International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, otherwise
confident the Games will go on as planned from July 24, has
acknowledged "serious problems" with the qualifying competitions.
"We will be very flexible and change the qualifying criteria
accordingly," the 66-year-old recently told broadcaster ARD.
According to Bach, 55 per cent of qualified places have been taken
with the rest still up for grabs. But it is currently impossible to
predict when swimmers, rowers, wrestlers and runners can return to
competition in Germany or anywhere else.
Berlin was due to host an April 17-19 qualifying tournament in
handball with Germany meeting Sweden, Slovenia and Algeria in a
contest for Olympic spots.
But the city ban on all gatherings of more than 50 people would
seemingly make that impossible.
Twelve teams are supposed to make it to Japan to battle for medals
but only six are qualified.
DOSB president Alfons Hoermann remains relaxed about the situation.
"This is a problem that I consider easy to solve," he told dpa. "The
nomination criteria for Team Germany can be flexibly adjusted if the
qualification tournaments cannot take place completely."
The IOC would also make its own adjustments.
"This is certainly the smallest worry we currently have," said
Hoermann.
The German swimming federation is considering "a smaller competition
with a maximum of 50 participants," national coach Bernd Berkhahn
told the Magdeburger Volksstimme paper. "However, this would also
have to be agreed with the health authority.
Berkhahn also warned: "Who now misses training for two to three weeks
also has slim chances of a leading spot at the summer Games."
It is no different in other sports. Changing qualification standards
is one thing, being ready to deliver top performances when it matters
after weeks of muddled training another.
"Motivation and morale have completely left me, I could not train in
the last four or five days," said Christopher Linke, who took fourth
in the 20-kilometre race walk at the 2019 world championships.
He has achieved qualification for Tokyo but now needs competition for
motivation and hone his performance.
"I don't go to training because it's so fun for me, rather because
I know that it is part of top performance," he said. "Now I don't
know any more what I should train for."