How Are Athletes Dealing With Social Distancing / Olympic Cancellation?

• NY Post: With The Olympics Called Off, Sydney McLaughlin Takes Training Cues From “Rocky” McLaughlin says she’s doing workouts with her training partners via FaceTime and going for runs or using the stairwell in her building for cardio.
• Good Read: Wayde Van Niekerk Says Olympic Postponement Came As A Huge Relief To Him Because He Was Worried About Getting His 77-Year-Old Coach Sick When He Saw Her In Training And not to mention, Van Niekerk is definitely someone who benefits from the Olympics being postponed as he was still on the road back from injury and hasn’t raced fast in a long time. With so many events being cancelled, his opportunities to tune up would have been limited.
• Donavan Brazier Is Training Solo In The Trails Around Portland As The Nike Track And Weight Room Are Closed Talking about Brazier’s training before he won Worlds, coach Pete Julian said, “I’ve been around this sport my whole life. There was stuff he was doing in training that maybe one or two other men on the planet can do, and I’m not sure who they are.”
• Geoffrey Kamworor Says He Will Continue Training Hard Through Coronavirus “Life has to continue as well as training. I don’t know how my figure will be by the time I will be running. I have hope that I will be extra fit to face the challenges and opponents when that time comes for the competition.”

More Cancellations, Will The Season Start Late Summer?

• Ken Goe: Coronavirus Has Delayed The Trials And Pre Is Unlikely, So What Meet Opens Hayward Field? Goe writes, “It’s hard to know what meet will serve as Hayward’s grand reopening. I continue to hope for some sort of elite meet, be it a delayed Pre Classic, an abbreviated national championships, or even a regional meet that would include the many elite athletes who live and train on the West Coast.”
• MB: Western States cancelled
• OTC Elite Athletes Hoping For Late-Summer Meets The Register Guard talks to OTC members Ben Blankenship and Hanna Green about how they’re dealing with the cancellations.
• Nairobi Athletics Meet, The First Leg Of The World Athletics Continental Tour, Is Postponed Until September The meet was scheduled for May 2nd.
• Jamaica Invitational Postponed Due To Coronavirus The meet was scheduled for May 2nd.
• 2020 Paris European Championships Organizers Remain Hopeful They Will Still Take Place The event is scheduled for the end of August.
  *European Athletics Athletes Committee Happy There Is A Chance 2020 Euro Champs In Paris Could Still Happen

This Week’s Podcast

LRC Coach Sean Brosnan Tells His Cool Story – How He Went From Journeyman Runner To Top High School Coach In 4 Years + Tokyo Cancelled + Greatest American Runner Bracket Brosnan picked the brains of, did workouts with, & ran under many of the greats including Alberto Salazar, Scott Simmons, Joe Vigil, Brad Hudson & Steve Scott.

More On Tokyo Postponement

• IOC Working Towards July-August 2021 Window For Postponed Tokyo Games They hope to confirm a new schedule within a month.
• RRW: Rescheduling Olympic Games Like “A Huge Jigsaw Puzzle” Says Thomas Bach “This is like a huge jigsaw puzzle putting together and every piece has to fit. If you take out one piece, the whole puzzle is destroyed.  Therefore, everything has to come together, and everything is important.”
• Runner’s World: “No, Let’s Not Rerun The Olympic Marathon Trials” We’re not sure if this had to be said, but yes, we agree.
• USOPC Open Letter To Team USA Athletes About Tokyo 2020

More On Olympic Postponement Decision

• Thomas Bach Says That The Tokyo Games Could Be Held In Spring Of 2021 Bach admitted that cancellation had been on the table, but it was “very clear that this should not be something the IOC would in any way favor.”
• Seb Coe Warns Dopers That Event Delays Won’t Protect Them Even though there will be less testing done, Coe says the AIU has already moved away from mass testing to “intelligent testing” and will still catch them. Coe also talked about the complications of rescheduling events and Olympic qualifying.
• The Telegraph: Who Are The Winners And Losers From Tokyo 2020 Postponement? For some athletes who are getting a bit older, like Mo Farah (who will be 38 in 2021), an extra year of aging probably isn’t helpful. But for others like 400 hurdler Eilidh Doyle, who gave birth in January, it gives them time to make a comeback.
  *MB: Let’s pretend the Olympics are postponed. The following athletes would benefit the most from it:
• Thomas Bach Says Costs Were Not Discussed When Deciding Olympic Postponement – “This is about protecting lives.” That’s BS. Of course they considered the costs. However, the IOC’s former head of commercial doesn’t think they shouldn’t suffer major losses, “You may be dealing with a little bit of re-engineering on the margin, but nothing of substance.”
• BBC: “Tokyo 2020 – The Right Decision, Made Just In Time” “When half the globe is under curfew in their own homes the idea of a vast assembly of athletes and spectators no longer makes any sense.”
• The Telegraph: Coronavirus Has Done For Tokyo 2020, But We Can Still Unite The Country By Reliving London 2012″
• Sport Ireland Promises To Maintain Athletes’ Funding Despite Tokyo Postponement

Update On LRC Coronavirus Patient’s Condition

LRC Update: LetsRun.com Visitor With COVID-19 Continues To Recover Good news as “justthefacts” condition continued to improve over the weekend and his fever is gone.

LRC What’s It Like For A Runner To Have COVID-19? A Long-Time LetsRun.com Visitor Shares His Story Of Being Infected With The Coronavirus A long-term visitor to LetsRun.com wants to share his story of what it is like to have the coronavirus. He also wants a LetsRun.com singlet when he gets better.
Discussion: I tested Positive for COVID here is my story