The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were meant to start today, this is what athletes do instead

Friday, July 24, was intended to mark the start of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event has been moved to July 2021.

So what do Australian athletes do the day they had to prepare for their events in Japan?

We spoke to four competitors from across the country to find out.

Nightmare scenario

Sinead Diver’s path to the Olympics was anything but orthodox.

The 43-year-old marathoner started running at age 33 to get fit after the birth of her two children.

After years of playing amateur basketball, the Melbourne native found that running more easily matched work and family obligations.

When Diver joined a running group, she realized she was good enough to compete.

Tokyo 2020 is said to have been her first Olympics.

“It’s difficult to deal with it, knowing that we should be in Japan now,” she said.

Instead, we’re locked in a bit of a nightmare scenario with homeschooling.

Together with her partner, Diver tries to juggle, train and take care of her boys for a full-time job in IT.

With future travel restrictions and the race calendar uncertain, Diver and her team have reduced training intensity.

She’s striving to compete in the London Marathon in October and really hopes Tokyo will continue next year this time.

Extra room for growth

Taliqua Clancy, 28, is Australia’s first native Olympian in beach volleyball.

She may not be in Tokyo today, but she will be with her fellow athletes.

“We’re going to the Queensland Academy of Sport, they have breakfast on the occasion of a year out,” she said.

Clancy is at the top of her game with her partner Mariafe Artacho del Solar.

They took home the silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and have a good chance of finishing on the podium in Tokyo.

“We are still confident that we can get a medal,” said Clancy.

When the corona virus first struck, tournaments were called off and training was drastically changed.

“We all had our own gyms at home and at the beginning we would call Zoom,” she said.

Now everything is back to normal and Mrs. Clancy has “crossed her fingers”. The Games will take place in July 2021.

“There is nothing better than sitting around the Australian team in green and gold.”

“The goal posts have shifted, but the goal remains the same.”

Third seed works from home

This Friday, 29-year-old David Powell is at home in Melbourne teaching mathematics to a class of eighth-year-olds using Zoom, rather than preparing for table tennis.

“I should have marched to the stadium for the opening ceremony,” said Mr. Powell.

Powell has been playing table tennis since he was eight and is now Australia’s third best player.

His first major event was the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Despite limitations to the coronavirus and full-time work, Mr. Powell still trains on top of conditioning four to five times a week.

“I’ve always had to do full-time work playing, not just the big leagues but the other leagues,” he said.

Although 2020 has brought him some “curveballs” in both his teaching and table tennis careers, Powell says he has been able to adapt.

Next year, he hopes that instead of seeing students teach him, they’ll see him compete for Australia.

“The school has a pretty strong history of good table tennis,” he said.

“Not how it should be”

Today Edwina Bone thought she would watch the opening ceremony with her teammates in Tokyo before going to bed early in preparation for their first game against Spain on Saturday.

Instead, the Hockey Rose defender will get up early for team training in Perth before working out at the gym and dining at home with her husband.

“This was not supposed to go this year,” she said.

Even with COVID-19 distribution, the 29-year-old didn’t think the Olympics would be delayed.

“I was in shock and was a little relieved that they hadn’t been completely canceled,” she said.

After Bone made his debut with the Hockey Rose in 2013 and joined them for the Rio Games, he planned to retire after the July Olympics.

Now she hopes she can continue playing and make the selection next year.

“We are very lucky here, we can continue to train, we have weekly competitions,” she said.

Despite the initial shock and disappointment, Bone, who is at Edith Cowan University, can see some positive things.

“As bad as it was that Tokyo didn’t go through, it was good because I had to go to a school and do my first internship,” she said.