Most athletes were encouraged to postpone the summer Olympic Games in Tokyo to 2021, which should allow them to be held in safer conditions than now, when the world is in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. However, for some possible competitors an extra year of waiting can be expensive. Several age-old athletes should come to Tokyo, who already amaze fans with their athletic longevity, and now they will be forced to extend their already long career.

Hiroshi Hoketsu (equestrian sport)

For an athlete, there is nothing more important than speaking at the Olympic Games in your home country. It’s rare for anyone to have such a chance at least once in a lifetime. Hiroshi Hokets, the Japanese horseman, was much luckier than everyone else - he could take part in the home Olympics for the second time.

In 1964, a native of Tokyo was already competing in his hometown and took 40th place in the individual competition and 12th in the team. 56 years have passed since then, and 79-year-old Hoketsu is still engaged in his favorite sport and has the right to count on getting into his country's Olympic team.

Although Hoketsu’s sports career lasts an incredibly long time, he participated in the Olympics only three times - after his debut, he had to wait 44 years and go on dressage to be back on the main starts of the four-year-old.

In 2008, the Japanese became the oldest participant in the Beijing Olympics and repeated this achievement at the next competitions in London. He was not able to get to Rio de Janeiro, but the path to Tokyo is still open before him - Hokets only need to be among the top three in the national selection.

If Hokets manages to perform at the home Olympics in 2021, he will become the oldest Olympic athlete in history. He will be 80 years old next summer, while Swedish shooter Oscar Svan, who holds the record, was “only” 72 during the 1920 Olympics.

Leslie Thompson-Willie (rowing)

Canadian Leslie Thompson-Willie has her own plans for 2021, which by then will be 61 years old. She devoted most of her life to rowing - back in 1984 she made her debut at the Olympics as a helmsman and became a silver medalist in the oar four.

Since then, Thompson-Willie has been the constant mascot of Canadian rowing and has performed at all subsequent Olympics, except Athenian in 2004. As part of the eight, she won two more silver, one bronze, and in 1992 she rose to the highest step of the podium.

After her eighth Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Thompson-Willie decided to become a coach, but a year later revolutionary changes occurred in rowing. The helmsman’s gender has ceased to play a significant role in staffing the team, and now men can act as part of women's crews, and women - together with men.

Thompson-Willie decided that her help would be useful to Canada’s male eight and became her helmsman. In 2019, they performed at the World Cup and World Championships, but so far have not been able to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Canadians will still have a chance to overcome qualifications in this discipline, and Thompson-Willie will be able to return to work with women as a last resort - they did not have problems with selection.

Ni Xiamen (table tennis)

For a table tennis player, Ni Sian Tokyo is the city where she first became the world champion. Back in 1983, she won two gold medals there as part of the Chinese team. Next summer, when she is already 58, she plans to return to the capital of Japan and speak at the Olympics.

In the 1980s, Ni Xianl could not withstand competition for a long time in the Chinese team and moved to Germany, and then to Luxembourg, where she continued to do what she loved. Neither Syalian initially planned to become a coach, but no one forbade her to play. She became the European champion three times and won three more medals for her new country, the last of which was in 2018, when she was already 55 years old.

A year later, Ni Sialian got a ticket to her fifth Olympics. She took third place at the European Games, ahead of many significantly younger rivals. An athlete from Luxembourg will definitely become the oldest table tennis player who performed at the Olympic Games, and the transfer of competitions will allow her to make her record even more impressive.

Nino Salukvadze (shooting)

Not a single woman has yet managed to perform at nine Olympics. Georgian Nino Salukvadze is aiming to become the first. For the first time, she took part in the Games in 1988 as part of the USSR national team and won gold and silver medals in pistol shooting.

Since then, every four years, Salukvadze has always returned to the most prestigious competitions, representing already independent Georgia. In 2008, she added another bronze award to her collection.

Salukvadze already once entered Olympic history. In 2016, she became the first mother to speak at the Games with her child. While she herself fought for medals with women, her son Tsotne Machavariani tried to compete with men. It turned out, however, worse than that of his titled mother.

The family duet has not yet been able to qualify for Tokyo in full force, but Salukvadze succeeded. She has already won the right to speak at her ninth Olympic Games, which not a single woman in history has ever managed. By then, she will be 52 years old, and the Georgian athlete will again have very good chances for medals.

Jesus Angel Garcia (Athletics)

The sixth dozen will have time to exchange and the Spanish athlete Jesus Angel Garcia. At his very venerable age, he speaks in the most grueling discipline - walking for 50 km. During the Olympics in Tokyo, he will be 51 years old, of which he devoted most of his sport.

Garcia is the absolute champion in the number of participation in world championships. Since 1993, he missed just one start in 2017. During this time, he managed to celebrate one victory and three times came to the finish line third. At the Olympics, Garcia has also steadily performed since 1992, but has not yet won medals. The best result of the Spanish walker is fourth place at the 2008 Games.

Now Garcia’s performance is not as good as in his youth - since 2009, he has never become the winner of international competitions. But he can easily complete the distance in less than four hours, and for many younger rivals this remains an incomprehensible task. By the way, one of the contenders for the 50 km walking medal and Garcia’s rival in Tokyo should be the Portuguese Joao Vieira - the current vice champion, who will be 45 years old next summer.

Oksana Chusovitina (gymnastics)

In some sports, there is nothing impossible in performing in the fifth ten and even winning medals. But not in gymnastics, where an athlete’s career can end by the age of 20. It is all the more surprising that an athlete will perform at the Tokyo Olympics, who will be 46 years old taking into account the transfer of competitions.

Oksana Chusovitina is the most striking example of sports longevity in gymnastics. Back in 1992, she first became the Olympic champion in the United Team and since then she never missed a chance to compete again.

Her career was not easy - because of the cancer of her son, she had to move from her native Uzbekistan to Germany and represent this country at competitions. She managed to cure her son, and Chusovitina thanked the new homeland with the 2008 Olympic silver medal.

Now Chusovitina is again playing for Uzbekistan and is still considered one of the best gymnasts in the world in a vault. At the 2019 World Cup, she had to go through the entire all-around program to qualify for the eighth Olympics, but she got her way. Chusovitina is already the oldest gymnast who participated in the Games, and not only among women, but also among men, and soon she will be able to improve her record by five years at once.

Tiger Woods (Golf)

The legendary golfer Tiger Woods has repeatedly admitted that he dreams of playing at the Olympics. And he has such a chance - in Tokyo, golf will enter the competition program for the second time. True, by the time it comes time to compete for medals, the record holder for the PGA tour of victories will already be 45 years old.

Before speaking at the Olympics, Woods has yet to qualify for the national team. At the moment, he does not succeed in doing this - although Woods occupies a high 11th place in the qualifying rating of golf, he has five other representatives of the United States ahead of him, and the quota for the country is limited to four athletes. However, the transfer of the Olympics to the year plays into Woods's hand. He will still have time to gain the necessary rating points and change the status of the second substitute to the main participant.

Roger Federer (tennis)

When it comes to the legends of their sports, which at a venerable age can speak at the Olympics in Tokyo, one cannot help but recall Roger Federer. He will have only a week left until his 40th birthday after the planned gold match, and the Swiss will probably want to mark his anniversary in the status of a two-time Olympic champion.

Federer has won 20 Grand Slam tournaments during his career, but the Olympics did not submit to him in the personal rank. The Swiss only once reached the finals in 2012, in which they lost to the competition's owner Andy Murray. Federer still has Olympic gold, but only paired with Stan Wavrinka, won four years earlier. It is difficult to predict whether the tennis veteran will retain his uniform for another year, but so far he has not made it possible to doubt his status as a favorite in any major tournament.