Scott Radley: With Olympics on the brink, remember the athletes
Imagine for a moment that you're a sculptor who's spent four years working day and night on a piece. It's amazing. But just as it's about to be unveiled, someone knocks it over and it shatters into a million pieces.
Welcome to the world of Olympic athletes these days. Possibly, anyway.
To say there's confusion about what's going on with the Games right now would be a massive understatement. On Thursday evening, The Times newspaper cited sources saying the event was going to be cancelled. Within hours, the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee said that was categorically untrue."
What's really happening? Who knows?
Should it even be a question, many ask? The world is in the midst of a pandemic. People are dying. Is worrying about some multi-billion-dollar festival of competition not ridiculous at this point? Risking lives for some games doesn't seem all that smart.
There's merit in that. It might even seem an easy conclusion to reach at this moment. Until you turn your mind to the athletes.
Kevin Lytwyn never competed in the Olympics. He trained for years for the chance and was an alternate on the gymnastics team in London back in 2012. But four years later, he shredded his knee months before the Games and that was that.
Having come so close, he says he could imagine what it would feel like to be told he was on Team Canada only to have the rug suddenly pulled out from under him and everyone else.
You'd feel it in your gut," the Stoney Creek native says. The worst thing that's ever happened to you, you'd probably feel it like that."
I would be devastated," Joseph Veloce adds.
He competed in track cycling for Canada in London. He was going to McMaster in the lead-up to those Games but pretty much all the rest of his time was spent training. To do all that and then have your dream taken away, even for a valid reason? That would be brutal.
Swimmer Scott Dickens went to two Olympics. The Ancaster native is loathe to call what he gave up to be great - which was a lot - a sacrifice because it was his choice and he loved it. But if he'd put in all that time and effort and sweat and pain and then the Games were cancelled?
I would be heartbroken," he says.
Talk to all of them - and others - and you hear the same story about the time they spent preparing. Their social life? Nonexistent. Their down time? There was little. Their careers? Put on hold. Training was their life. For four-year chunks, this was who they were. Plus, there isn't a ton of funding in Canada so it's doubly difficult.
Yes, the Olympics are a bloated, corporate television event that brings out both the best and worst of competition. But they're also a personal moment of triumph and achievement for the people who've devoted a good chunk of their lives to be there.
They're not all Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt and Simone Biles who will go on to make millions from this. Most are young people who've worked incredibly hard for years simply to live a dream with little chance of hitting any financial jackpot.
If we respect dedication and hard work and achievement and all those things we say we value, these folks who risk losing so much should be front of mind with every bit of breaking news or breathless Tweet that crosses our screen. Hoping it can all work out, somehow.
Doesn't mean the Olympics should go ahead no matter what. Athletes' feelings and disappointment can't override crucial health and safety considerations. But we surely shouldn't be cavalier about the possibility of cancellation, either. Treating it as if it doesn't really matter.
Because there are real people involved who've invested everything in this pursuit.
Real people whose sculptures are wobbling rather precariously right now.
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com