Uncertainties Clouding the 2021 Tokyo Olympics Affect the Athletes

"We don't know how much fans are gonna be there. We don't know how much media coverage is gonna take place. We have no idea. We don't know if all of the countries are gonna participate," These are just some of the uncertainties that, for Jinno Rufino, are clouding the upcoming Tokyo Olympics that are from July 23 to August 8, 2021. 

Off the Record with Migs and Cesca aired its first episode for 2021 as Migs Bustos and Cesca Litton-Kalaw discussed the major sporting events of 2021 with Jinno Rufino. Topping the list of sporting events that we fans can look forward to this 2021 is the Tokyo Olympics that was supposed to take place last year until it was postponed due to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic. However, the pandemic still happening and cases in Japan are still on the rise, and that the uncertainties will continue to cloud how the Olympics are going to be played come July. But for Jinno Rufino, he has a bigger concern: "My biggest concern is really for the athletes. I was talking to a lot of the athletes especially when this is their final Olympics already,"

"Hidilyn Diaz is one of the people who are hoping to make it back. Jasmine Alkhadi was one of the athletes that I was talking to. This is her last chance to be back in the Olympics and she still doesn't know what the situation is when it comes to qualifying (for an Olympic berth). Let's put aside what the fans will receive and what the viewership will be like. For me, let's focus on what the athletes will experience when the Olympics roll out,"  Rufino added. 

Cesca Litton-Kalaw agreed with Rufino with regards to how the uncertainties will affect athletes who will compete in Tokyo. "No one knows what's gonna happen. Can you imagine being an athlete, training all your life for this moment, and then it gets suspended?  You don't know when you're gonna be called-up. You don't know if it will push through," Litton-Kalaw also spoke about having mental toughness for athletes. "It's such a cliche that you have to be mentally tough when you're an athlete but this is when it comes into play because you have power through. You start questioning 'will this push through? Should I still bother training?'. You train every single day and you don't know to what end," She also added, "This is their dream. It's once in a lifetime and just the fact that it could possibly be taken away not because of something you failed at, imagine working so hard to qualify and it just didn't happen. I think that's just a painful thing,"

Monday marked just 200 days before the start of the Olympics and while many believe that the Tokyo Games will push through despite the uncertainties, as Rufino said, "Let's focus on what the athletes will experience,"

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