How do the athletes cope with this?
Opinions are divided on the Olympics this year. Not enough to question the whole endeavour in times of corona - rightly so, of course. Tokyo is now taking place, but largely without live spectators, which means without applause, emotions, atmosphere and ambience in the stands and grandstands. What does that mean for the players? Wasn't it previously the case that top sporting performances were partly dependent on the audience?
The vast majority of athletes are not so bothered that they would be deterred from taking part. Their sporting interests take centre stage. Malte Jakschik, rower in Team Germany, for example, says–Eighth: "My goal for Tokyo 2021 is to finish with the best possible performance and to deliver what we've worked on over the last few years in the races." By that he means the last four plus one year - too long a preparation period to simply give up now.
Quite different: tennis pro Nick Kyrgios, who recently commented in "Spiegel Sport". Playing in empty stadiums just doesn't suit him. Why is it that athletes have such different views on this topic? Why doesn't common sense prevail everywhere - according to the motto: the main thing is that the games take place - the fact that no spectators can be there is the price to be paid.
Perhaps it is the sport itself - a tennis player usually stands alone for his country and, above all, with his name on the court. The rower, on the other hand, is first and foremost a member of his team. Hand on heart, who knows the names of all eight rowers who together give their best for their country in the German eight? Keyword: together. If one of them drops out, the whole construct is invalid and it affects everyone. After all, the hard preparation time always includes dividing up the places in the boat.
Is that the whole truth? Only the athletes themselves know. Of course, I could now start thinking out loud about narcissists and whether some athletes are basically competing for themselves alone and whether that's not okay, but that would be going way too far at this point.