Ex-Olympians Christa Harmotto, Lauryn Williams feel for athletes, IOC amid uncertainty of '20 Games

Christa (Harmotto) Dietzen was looking forward to an exciting summer. She and her husband, Derek, are expecting their first child in early July, and she had visions of sitting by the TV, holding her son and cheering on Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics.

But concerns over the spread of covid-19 have cast an air of uncertainty over the upcoming Games. On Sunday, the IOC, which had been adamant the Olympics would go on as scheduled, said postponement was on the table and would be discussed over the coming weeks.

Later Sunday, Canada and Australia announced they would not be sending athletes to Tokyo.

The events hit home with Dietzen. The Hopewell and Penn State product is a two-time member of the U.S. Olympic women’s volleyball team (2012, ’16), and she fully appreciates the weight of the situation.

“I think it was four or five weeks ago, I was listening to (NBC Sports personality) Mike Tirico talk about it,” said Dietzen, 33, who lives in Southern California. “I was kind of in denial for a while, like, is this really going to cancel the Olympics?

“It kind of got a little real when Mike Tirico was talking about it. In the last couple weeks, everything really escalated.”

Lauryn Williams, a veteran of three Summer Games (2004, ’08, ’12 as a sprinter) and one Winter Games (2014 in bobsled), said her gut feeling is the Olympics will be postponed.

“I think there’s pretty much no doubt they are going to postpone at this point,” the Rochester graduate said. “We’re just figuring this thing out. I know the IOC is in a really tough place in trying to figure out a new date.”

From an athlete’s perspective, training would be the biggest issue if the Games were pushed back, Dietzen said. Olympic athletes follow rigid workout schedules, and she wondered if they would be able to properly ramp up their bodies to competition level if their regimen was disrupted.

Williams agreed and went a step further: Athletes not only are wondering if the Games will go on but if there even will be trials for their respective national teams. And, if there are trials, she said, would those results carry over if the Olympics were delayed until next year?

“There are no easy answers,” she said.

Dietzen and Williams struck similar tones on two other points:

• Some athletes likely are unable to train as they normally do, given the many stay-at-home policies and travel restrictions enacted worldwide. But in the countries where the effects of coronavirus haven’t been as severe, those athletes could have an advantage.

• For many, this could be their only chance to compete in the Olympics.

“My heart really goes out to the athletes,” said Williams, 36, the first American to earn a medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics. “It’s the stress of doing something you get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do, and that opportunity could be taken away from you.”

If something like this had happened during her Olympic years, Williams said she would have preferred to compete. She acknowledged, however, everyone has “their own levels of concerns, comforts and fears.”

She said she hopes if the Games are postponed, they still can take place in 2020 to keep the four-year cycle intact.

Harmotto said the first priority, delay or no delay, should be the athletes’ safety.

“I don’t think the world has ever been in this position to make the IOC analyze this kind of decision,” she said. “At the end of the day, the health of the athletes trumps the Olympic Games.

“There is so much unknown, and that has to be resolved before we even talk about an Olympics. I think if they postponed it for a year, I would be all for that.”