Christine Brennan:
There is no ability to go out on the town with family or friends after their events or during their events.
There is no mingling with the other athletes. The joy of a Canadian being able to sit next to an Indian, who is sitting next to an Australian, who is sitting next to German athletes, all different sports, having lunch or dinner, that can’t happen. They cannot sit in the dining hall and enjoy those — that social time.
And when you talk to athletes, as you and I have, Judy, over the years, Olympians from the past, they talk about that, the deep friendships that they made, again, in the village. It can’t happen, because you cannot have the risk, not — COVID, of course, is part of it, but also contact tracing.
Someone goes and does that, and then there is, of course, the tracing, the apps. We will all have them. They will be watching us, our every move. And then you go back to your dorm, your Olympic village hallway, and you contact trace your roommates right out of their event.
It sounds like that could be dramatic and maybe won’t happen. I certainly hope it doesn’t happen, Judy, but it could.
And that’s why it’s going to be a very austere and spartan Olympic Games, where these athletes compete and then they go home, none of the celebration, the joie de vivre that we are so used to at an Olympic Games.
