﻿{"id":423549,"date":"2020-03-22T01:08:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T08:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=423549"},"modified":"2020-03-22T12:08:14","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T19:08:14","slug":"michael-gross-issues-albatross-warning-to-thomas-bach-keep-olympic-dreams-alive-with-tokyo-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/michael-gross-issues-albatross-warning-to-thomas-bach-keep-olympic-dreams-alive-with-tokyo-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Gross Issues Albatross Warning To Bach: Save Olympic Dreams With Tokyo 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Michael Gross,<\/strong> the great German butterfly and freestyle swimming ace of the 1980s. has called for the <strong>postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games until 2021 or 2022<\/strong> in a direct appeal to<strong> Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>One of the legends of swimming history, known as <strong>&#8220;The Albatross&#8221;<\/strong> for the\u00a02.13m wingspan of outstretched arms with which he flew to three Olympic titles among six ultimate-podium visits and five World titles, Gross spoke directly to Bach&#8217;s own experience: both the swimmer and the former fencer had their own Olympic dreams brought to an end in 1980 when the Federal Republic of Germany joined the boycott of the Moscow Games.<\/p>\n<p>In Facebook post picked up by<em> dpa<\/em>, the German news agency, Gross, 55, tells Bach that where in 1980 many lost their Olympic Dream, now the IOC boss\u00a0had it in his hands &#8220;to save the Olympic Dream for many athletes&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Gross&#8217; call comes as the pressure mounts on many fronts for Bach and the IOC to postpone. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/bravo-to-the-tokyo-2021-advocates-as-swim-leaders-navigate-a-big-bend-in-the-river\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">On Friday, the world swimming community presented a united front for Tokyo 2020 to become Tokyo 2021<\/a>, while today in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homeaffairs.gov.au\/news-media\/current-alerts\/novel-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR0CobpLulNLJmwXM4YM8nuctTyg9NgWCf8z7iXfu3cwiQZM-nNC0E0pnyc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Australia <\/strong><\/a><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"><strong>Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed that the nation&#8217;s international travel ban<\/strong> imposed to combat the <strong>coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic<\/strong>\u00a0will apply to Olympic athletes, \u00a0casting major doubts on Australia&#8217;s participation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, albeit 14-15 weeks before the official period of the Olympic Games begins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Australian travel ban comes into force this hour, the Government notice headed with this instruction:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;From 9pm AEDT 20 March 2020, only Australian citizens, residents and immediate family members can travel to Australia. All travellers to Australia are required to self-isolate for 14 days, either at home or in a hotel.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In Germany, the intervention of a German sports legend adds to the sense in Bach&#8217;s home country that he is now an old fencer on the back foot with no option other than to announce a postponement this coming week.<\/p>\n<p>Gross writes that\u00a0&#8220;2020 would be unfair!&#8221; and urges Bach &#8220;think again&#8221; and change course from a &#8220;show must go on&#8221; mantra, the alternative to which has so far been presented as &#8220;cancellation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_423551\" style=\"width: 188px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-423551\" data-attachment-id=\"423551\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/michael-gross-issues-albatross-warning-to-thomas-bach-keep-olympic-dreams-alive-with-tokyo-2021\/michaelgrosswiki\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/MichaelGrosswiki.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"427,640\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"MichaelGrosswiki\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;MichaelGrosswiki&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Photo Courtesy:&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/MichaelGrosswiki-427x500.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/MichaelGrosswiki.jpg\" class=\" wp-image-423551\" src=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/MichaelGrosswiki-427x500.jpg\" alt=\"MichaelGrosswiki\" width=\"178\" height=\"208\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-423551\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Gross &#8211; Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Gross writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\">&#8220;Dear Thomas, we both suffered the Olympic boycott together in 1980. For many athletes, our teammates, the Olympic Dream came to an end &#8211; once and for all. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\">This time it is about you being able to save the Olympic Dream for many athletes &#8211; by postponing the Games until 2021 or 2022. Right NOW, 2020 would be unfair!&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The former World record holder, who claimed the 100m butterfly and 200m freestyle Olympic titles at Los Angeles in 1984 and the 200m butterfly crown at the Seoul 19888 Olympic Games, adds:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #008080;\">&#8220;Many athletes cannot train or are only able to train poorly, qualifications cannot take place in many sports, the global anti-doping system is at a standstill, etc. &#8230; This creates unfair conditions. Right NOW, postponing the Games would take the pressure off EVERYONE. Right now, there is something more important than the Olympics.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Gross signs off:\u00a0&#8220;Think again&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bach, 66 and an FRG team fencing gold medallist at Montreal 1976, has argued that cancellation of Tokyo 2020 would &#8220;destroy&#8221; Olympic dreams but he has studiously avoided open consideration of a postponement Plan B.<\/p>\n<p>Even yesterday, in an interview with<em> S\u00fcdwestrundfunk<\/em>, Bach screeched past the postponement issue and said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The cancellation would destroy the Olympic dream of 11,000 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees and the IOC refugee team. Such a cancellation would be the least fair solution.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Why Calling A Halt Make Sense, Says Aussie Football Boss<\/h2>\n<p>Gross adds his name to a growing chaos of leading lights in sport urging those who want to press ahead with business as usual that 2020 can longer be business as usual.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Sunday in Australia at a live press conference on Channel 7, <strong>Australian Football League CEO Gill McLachlan<\/strong> announced that the season had been suspended, <em>Ian Hanson, Ocean Correspondent,<\/em> notes in a dispatch from Down Under that reflects the depth and breadth of events across the sports spectrum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFootball is facing its biggest crisis in its history, \u201cMcLachlan declared.\u00a0\u201cThe 2020 AFL season is on hold for two months as coronavirus continues to grip the globe, while no AFL Women\u2019s premier will be anointed (as the teams played their finals Series).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>McLachlan said the decision by a number of states \u2013 including Victoria \u2013 to close borders and impose travel bans had left the League with little choice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was time for the AFL to stop the AFLW and AFL competitions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThe AFL industry is facing its biggest financial crisis in our history. But our key priority is to do everything possible to keep players, staff and supporters healthy and well throughout this pandemic.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cTo say that this is the most serious threat to our game in 100 years is an understatement. It is unprecedented in its impact. It is unprecedented in the impact it\u2019s having on our game and the wider community, and as a community and as a code, we all need to take the unprecedented and required actions to get through this together.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI know that everyone involved in our game and our millions of supporters will be impacted by this decision, and that many people will suffer significant hardship, as are people right across our community. But I also know that we all have a responsibility to the community, and to each other, and we will have to work collectively to overcome this crisis.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Games will be suspended until May 31, with the situation to be reviewed at the end of April, and all club training has been suspended.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe date could be extended out,\u201d McLachlan said.\u00a0The AFL boss admitted he \u201cnever thought it would come to this\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnimaginable two weeks ago, three weeks ago,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cLet alone a year ago.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;We\u2019re not alone. This is just unprecedented &#8230; for our communities, for Australians. There are a lot of people having to make tough decisions to get us through this.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He said clubs were \u201cshocked\u201d, and that \u201cthings have become very real in the last couple of hours\u201d, and that the solvency of some clubs would be challenged but boosted by Federal Government assistance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we\u2019ll get there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h2>Meanwhile, A note on the Albatross<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">&#8220;Water, water, every where,<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">And all the boards did shrink;<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Water, water, every where,<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Nor any drop to drink.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere) is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797\u201398 and published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Albatrosses have been described as &#8220;the most legendary of all birds&#8221; (iHandbook of Birds, World Vol 1. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, ISBN 84-87334-10-5). An albatross is the central emblem in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, representing the innocence and beauty of God&#8217;s creation.<\/p>\n<p>The albatross metaphor is derived from this poem; someone bearing a burden or facing an obstacle is said to have &#8220;an albatross around his neck&#8221;, the punishment given to the mariner who killed the albatross.<\/p>\n<p>A widespread myth holds that sailors believe shooting or harming an albatross is disastrous, due in part to the poem; in truth, sailors regularly killed and ate them, as reported by James Cook in 1772. However, other sailors reportedly caught the birds but let them free again, possibly believing that albatrosses were the souls of lost sailors, so killing them would bring bad luck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Gross, the great German butterfly and freestyle swimming ace of the 1980s. has called for the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games until 2021 or 2022 in a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7532,"featured_media":423577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122087,122074,10],"tags":[120856,121252,336,122185,585,122184,237,50868,122187,122186,122188,36537,58477],"class_list":["post-423549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-coronavirus","category-europe","category-world","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-germany","tag-international-olympic-connittee","tag-michael-gross","tag-olympic-commitee","tag-olympic-games","tag-open-letter","tag-postponee","tag-president-ioc","tag-the-albatross","tag-thomas-bach","tag-tokyo-2020"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - 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