I can’t be the only one looking at Tokyo and thinking that the Olympic Games are not going to happen.
Protests by locals and hesitancy by Japanese officials aren’t going away with the biggest event in sports under two months away.
Only this week, we saw Argentina stripped of its hosting rights for the Copa America, just two weeks before kickoff because of a surge in coronavirus.
Buenos Aires chiefs were reporting around 40 000 new cases of Covid-19 a day ahead of the call by the South American football confederation (Conmebol).
But then they made the inexplicable decision to hand the tournament to Brazil, where the death toll is only dwarfed by the USA and the 95 000 new cases were reported just yesterday.
If that sounds ridiculous to you, it’s because it is.
However, this isn’t about Brazil and the Copa America.
The Tokyo Games were already postponed last year and officials aren’t about to accept defeat.
Yesterday, sterkgevriet Japanese organisers confirmed that the games will go ahead, despite stern warnings from the nation’s top health official.
And while foreign fans have been banned from traveling to the Games, new plans for locals to show negative Covid-19 test results or vaccination records will not win over an already skeptical local public.
While it’s great to see limited numbers of fans return to football in Europe, you just get the feeling that they aren’t doing enough to stop the spread of this virus.
Many nations – not just us – are struggling with vaccinating their mense and fake news and misinformation is still a massive problem to getting people to understand what is expected of them in the fight against the pandemic.
That leaves the 11 091 expected attending athletes on tenterhooks.
I, for one, am super-excited to see the Blitzbokke and our U23 football side compete.
Plus our male sprinters are getting up to speed, with new star Shaun Maswanganyi, making waves in the US.
Wayde van Niekerk is yet to qualify for his events, but him saying that he is going for the 100m, 200m and 400m, yoh, it would be awesome to see him go.