The kotinos or the virus?

Recently, two Filipino boxers qualified for Tokyo, middleweight Eumir Marcial and flyweight Irish Magno. Both join gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo and pole vaulter EJ Obiena in the hunt for that elusive Olympic gold. Others may follow, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz still racks in points to qualify and snatch a chance to turn her silver into gold.

But the fate of the Tokyo Olympics hangs in the balance. Now a pandemic, the coronavirus ceased to be novel, it has travelled. But undetected, faster, higher and stronger, just like how athletes prepare.

 The uncertainty of the Games is not novel, the Rio de Janeiro Games was also threatened by Zika virus four years ago but succeeded just the same. But world war was more emphatic, it cancelled the Olympics thrice in 1916, 1940 and 1944.

Politics subtly divided it many more times through voluntary, partisan withdrawal, bitterly known as boycott. It invariably reduced participation several times over, the most punctuated no-show was at the 1980 Moscow Games after the United States led 65 countries to protest Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later, the Russians returned the disfavor and led 14 eastern bloc countries and allies to snub Los Angeles.

Whether to cancel or move the Games should be left to the International Olympic Committee, the World Health Organization and the host city that is about to lose billions of dollars in investment and preparation.

If Tokyo pushes through, some countries may hesitate to participate, including the Philippines. Understandable. Boycott most polite and justified. But if fewer countries compete, the void softens competition. In Olympic magnitude where virtual equals are separated by the slimmest margins, no one wants to win by default, much less triumph over mediocrity.

What if to minimize risk of contagion, live audience is omitted, for anyway, it beams live to billions worldwide? Quite an option, but this may dampen spirit of competition. The Games is not only about athletic supremacy, it also celebrates humanity in sports unison. A weird scenario, winners stand tall in the podium before an empty stadium while their countrymen celebrate in isolation.

But the absence of loud spectators may relax the athletes. Without hungry faces of expectation in sight, they perform bright in a speed of light. It may also demoralize them and betray what their body and mind were trained for. Either way or both, athletes are conditioned to defy physical, mental and emotional challenges to sports excellence. Gnarled, they are ready to die for flag and country, but not for a faceless, treacherous virus.

If cancelled, it would be a heartbreaker of a loss for these Filipino athletes who live to train for the Olympic dream only for naught, and see their sacrifice go down the drain thinking what could have been. Losing before playing is worse than losing after playing. All four, and Diaz, have good chances at a medal of any color, or achieve what any other Filipino Olympian failed to do, bring home the gold.

If moved for two years as initially reported, the training calendar significantly adjusts for athletes to peak at the right time. And by then, the athletic landscape may have considerably changed, and the virus, if not contained, may have mutated.

Whichever way it is, the quadrennial games may be worth an athlete’s limb for those injured during training or competition, or even liberty for those who cheat and lie about it, like the disgraced American sprinter Marion Jones who served time for lying to federal prosecutors about her steroid use.

But never life, especially young athletes who still have so much to live for outside sports. But while at their peak, they die for Olympic glory in the name of sports immortality. The choice narrows down, be crowned with the kotinos, Greek for olive wreath, or the crown itself, that is the coronavirus.

If the Games were cancelled, athletes may ask what if it was not, could they have won? No one knows with precision. But the better question is, could they still ask it inside the casket?