Never in history has an Olympic Games been cancelled by a medical issue. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are now becoming (in)famous for another medical issue; the COVID 19 pandemic, which hangs like a pall of gloom over the event itself. This has led to the postponement of the Olympics to 2021. So, what is different in 2020? The scale of the pandemic (its global), the virulence of the infection (thousands are dead, and hundreds of thousands are infected), and the understanding that "Social distancing" maybe the only method currently known to prevent dissemination of the disease have led to this drastic measure. It is not only the thousands of athletes that would gather, but the support staff, the media, and the common fans, who would congregate to these venues, making a catastrophic issue already worse. Many countries have banned international travel, and although the economic cost to the games, the media, the athletes and the host country is immense, the potential costs if the games went ahead is even worse. So, I feel that Olympics and Pandemics do not mix, and one has to give way for the other; health of athletes and the public is paramount, and thus the IOC and Japan rightfully beat a strategic retreat. Nevertheless the current issue of the Indian Journal of Orthopaedics, with a specially designed symposium timed to go to print at the time of the 2020 Olympics will still go ahead; as they say, the show must go on.
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