“The Games of yesterday will not be the Games of tomorrow,” stated Guy Drut, a member of the International Olympic Committee, calling for them to be reinvented in the wake of the Covid pandemic that postponed the 2020 Games to next year.
Drut, a former French minister of sports who was an Olympic champion at Montreal 1976 in the men’s 110-meter hurdles says the coronavirus crisis is an opportunity for the Olympic movement to look at itself. He has also called on the Paris Olympics 2024 to be reviewed, describing the project as “obsolete, outdated and disconnected from reality.”
He asked, as reported by France Televisions, “Can the response to this crisis translate into the mere postponement of dates, without the model, both economic and organizational, of the Games being also deeply rethought?”
Drut described the cost of the postponement of Tokyo 2020 as “very expensive” with some reports estimating it could be as much as $3 billion, though he insisted those Games must take place.
“The Olympic and Paralympic Games are a celebration, the meeting of a lifetime for athletes of all backgrounds and all nationalities,” said Drut.
“They are sport; a unique moment of universal peace, meetings and respect for others. The Games are useful–even more in times of crisis.”
That is why they must be adapted, “to keep them suitable for the changing world.”
He would like to see the IOC bring together organizing committee for the next Olympic Games through 2028 “to explore new avenues, to think useful, sober, and responsible.”
Drut also suggested that certain sports could take place at the same location wherever an Olympic Games is hosted.
“It is very expensive to build new equipment for an event that lasts only three or four days,” he explained.
“Take the case of surfing. The Olympic site could always be the same and be, for example, in Tahiti or Hawaii.You have to keep the unit of time with the Olympic Games which take place from such date to such date, but the unit of place and action can vary.” Remember how the equestrian portion of the 2008 Olympics was in Hong Kong, while the rest of the Games were in Beijing.