Summer Olympic Games were supposed to begin this week: In retrospect, it's ridiculous that postponement took so long

USA Today

The International Olympic Committee waited until March 24 to officially postpone this year's Summer Olympics to one year from now after several countries pulled out. “What was really surprising I guess was that it took that long to come to the conclusion that it was a non-starter,” says Dick Pound, the longest-serving IOC member, told USA Today in an interview from his home in Montreal. “The curve hadn’t really started to head north in a lot of countries. It was serious and clearly spreading but the numbers were nowhere near what they were to become. I don’t think as many people as should have understood what a real pandemic is like.” From the perspective today, he says, there's "no way at all" the games could have proceeded. "You can see what’s going on now in (the United States) and in Brazil, some of these other countries, where the wave is still arriving. It just couldn’t happen. I don’t think the public authorities would allow it to happen," says Pound. "Think about what that would look like: you’re going to quarantine entire Olympic teams for 14 days when they arrive in Japan, assuming they can get there? No. No way at all.” ALSO: There's still a lot of uncertainty over whether the Summer Olympics can happen one year from now.