Unusually, it seems appropriate to start this week's column in the same place as last: Athens in June 2021 at the scheduled International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session where IOC President Thomas Bach is expected to come up for re-election.
As sporting comebacks go, the return of another heavyweight giant could put even the remarkable renaissance of world boxing champion Tyson Fury in the shade. Former karate king Geoff Thompson is back training in a bid for a place at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics next year - at 62.
A global host of runners have found their steps hindered and halted by the pressure of events in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Training confined. Races cancelled. Games postponed…
Jigsaw puzzles have enjoyed a surge of popularity in recent weeks as people look to pass the time during lockdown periods.
Just under two months ago, I wrote a blog on the emergence of coronavirus as a new challenge for the organisers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
As the Olympic world hurtled towards the postponement this week, Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Tarō Asō spoke of a 40-year Olympic cycle. He recalled the Moscow 1980 Games, when Japan joined a boycott, and looked even further back to 1940, when Tokyo was awarded the Olympics but they never took place.
Just shy of two weeks ago, the European boxing qualifier for Tokyo 2020 began in London.
It appeared to have been so carefully choreographed.
My late father-in-law Jack often spoke with understandable bitterness about his experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war (POW) during his four-and-a-half-year sojourn in the notorious Changi POW camp in Singapore, and later on the Burma Railway where brave soldiers were disgustingly treated like slaves.
As an emblem of our disrupted times, what took place yesterday at Sendai railway station in the Japanese prefecture of Miyagi works disturbingly well.
Right now, this is the new normal. We find ourselves glued to news channels indoors, waiting for the now daily broadcasts and measures from politicians that just days ago were unthinkable, as death tolls rise and economies collapse amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Given the current circumstances, it came as no surprise when the UEFA European Championships were postponed until 2021.
Japanese freestyle swimmer Naoko Imoto was chosen to collect the Olympic Flame in Athens this week. She proudly represented her country at the Centennial Olympics of 1996.
The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) steadfast refusal to contemplate Tokyo 2020 not taking place as planned has been the subject of understandable ridicule.
"Follow the money," a wise man once said.
At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeili was disqualified for weighing in at nearly four pounds above the limit for his weight class of his under-66 kilograms match against an Israeli opponent Ehud Vaks in the first round. It was claimed Miresmaeili had gone on an eating binge to protest the International Olympic Committee's recognition of the state of Israel. Iran does not recognise the state of Israel, and Miresmaeili's actions won praise from high-ranking Iranian officials. Mohammad Khatami, the country's President at the time, was quoted as saying Miresmaili's actions would be "recorded in the history of Iranian glories". He was later awarded $125,000 by the Government - the same amount given to Olympic gold medallists.
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Planning for the Olympic and Paralympic Games is mind-boggling. Following postponement, and with the coronavirus pandemic ongoing, the challenge now facing Tokyo 2020 organisers is unique. Mike Rowbottom reports.
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