• News: The Tokyo Games are postponed to 2021 and leave a lost year for sports

In most sports the Games change everything: a world champion can be a stranger in his country if he does not hang an Olympic medal. It occurs in sailing or judo, it occurs -although to a lesser extent- in athletics and swimming. Many disciplines are organized around the Games and, therefore, the postponement of Tokyo 2020, will force them to change their calendar for the coming years.

A few hours after the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Athletics Federation, for example, has already announced that its 2021 World Cup, to be held in Eugene, in the United States, will very possibly go to 2022 to the detriment of the European Munich that had to be played that same summer. Cohabitation will be complicated, but at the same time mandatory because the Games are the Games. The same happens in swimming, which was preparing a World Cup in Fukuoka for 2021; canoeing, which had the World Cup in Copenhagen that year and another in Dartmouth in 2022; weightlifting, rowing, judo, taekwondo ... but what about other sports?

For some disciplines, the Games are just one more championship between a very busy schedule and their change of dates is a relief. The most important case is basketball. While cycling or tennis barely adapt the Games as another competition, basketball needs to leave a month's gap for the Olympic event and this 2020 the months will not be superfluous. Beyond the Eurobasket in Germany, the Czech Republic, Georgia and Italy that was to be held in 2021 and could now pass 2022, the break will be for the NBA.

The coronavirus crisis has forced the American basketball league to transform its schedule and if the Olympic Games had been played this summer, its stars would have had a very difficult time participating in both competitions. Now the picture is different. The NBA will be able to play its Finals this year in August and next year adapt so that the players do not have problems.

Based on previously revealed planning, the idea is for the next season to start in December, including December 25, and end around June after reducing the regular season. That would allow LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Marc Gasol and company to even enjoy a few weeks off before concentrating with their teams and enjoying the Olympic event without problems.

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