Rod Davis


Decisions decisions


What to do with our biggest events? Olympic Games, America’s Cup, Round the World Race. Postpone? Cancel? Or just ‘damn the torpedoes’ and run them? The Olympics, which would have started about


now, have been postponed for a year. To put the biggest event on the planet on hold was, well,


unthinkable at the beginning of March, just five months before the opening ceremony. By the end of March it was a done deal; the Olympics will be in 2021, hopefully. We will come back to that in a minute. I started this column thinking about the mindset of the yachties


who have been building up for their Olympic dream, only to have the rug pulled out from under them. How would you deal with that? Stand down for six months and then fire it all up for a final push to the Games? Push right away, using the extra time to see if you can find a breakthrough in how to sail your boat? What about the teams still trying to qualify, both as a country


and as individuals representing their country? Trial races have been cancelled with no clear picture how this plays out. Not because of some skulduggery, but because an extraordinary virus has confused everything for everybody. This is what has torn up every plan of every sailor in every country. And yours, too, probably! Now we are all peering into the fog, hoping to find clarity. No


matter how hard you look the path is obscure. And it will be a long time before the fog lifts and we can see what is out there. All that does your head in, really. It’s not just a sailor problem, but national sports’ federations, coaches, support teams, sponsors,


32 SEAHORSE


umpires, judges, volunteers, families of all of the above; it’s a massive call to postpone the Olympic Games, but in the end the IOC had no choice. What about next year? Are we going to be back to normal? Behind


that fog is there clear blue water and a fair wind, or are there waves crashing onto rocky reefs while a gale is blowing? If the world has no vaccine for Covid-19 nor global herd immunity


can we even have the Olympics? But can we afford, financially and mentally, not to have the Olympics? Bear in mind the Olympics have been cancelled three times before, but only during world wars. Arguably the world is at war again, but we are united against one foe this time. I am not pushing to cancel the Olympics. No, far from it. The


world will need something to rally behind next year. The problem is who makes that call? One thing is assured: self-interest will rule, as it always does when it comes to these big money things. The Olympics are big money. What about the America’s Cup in six months, down here in New


Zealand? As it stands now the borders are closed to everyone but NZ citizens and permanent residents. At the time of writing there are no active Covid cases in New Zealand. So the only way it can get in is from the outside, through the border. Being an island, that border is very controllable. Soon, however, there will be a way in for America’s Cup challenger


personnel, with a two-week quarantine stint in a hotel room of the government’s choosing. That can work for the team members who will be in New Zealand for five months, but all the overseas fans, media, VIPs of sponsors, individual backers of the teams who want


MAX RANCHI


PIERRE BOURAS/DPPI


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