SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – The International Olympic Committee announced on Tuesday that the Tokyo Games has been postponed to some time next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Seminole County resident and four-time Olympian Chaunte Lowe had mixed feelings about the announcement.
"It has been an emotional roller coaster these past couple of days," the bronze medalist in high jump said. "As much I had wanted to go and how much I was working, it didn't seem like a wise decision for it to continue."
Lowe had been preparing for the Games in 2020, despite being diagnosed with breast cancer last year.
“I’ve been training for it since chemotherapy and now I have to wait another year,” she said.
Going forward, training will be different for Lowe, as she practices for more than just her country, competing for her health as well.
“I’m going to have to find a way to train and still be safe, so I’ll be social distancing for quite awhile” Lowe said.
Other Olympics — 1916, 1940 and 1944 — have been canceled because of war, but none have ever been postponed for any reason, let alone a renegade virus that has accounted for more than 375,000 cases worldwide, with numbers growing exponentially. The Tokyo Games would still be called the 2020 Olympics, even though they will be held in 2021 — the first time the games will be held in an odd-numbered year since the modern era began in 1896.
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