There are a lot of speculations going around regarding the future of the Tokyo Games. And the latest to join the debate is 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist Zhan Beleniuk. The Ukrainian wrestler believes the Summer Games are ‘likely to be cancelled’. In conversation with YouTube podcast Intersport, Beleniuk said that there are a lot of rumours going around regarding the fate of Tokyo Olympics and the way things are it cannot be held next year too. “They have been postponed a year in advance, but there are already rumours that if they cannot be held in next year, then they are likely to be cancelled. Therefore, we can even be left without the Olympics”.
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The Tokyo Games were postponed to July 23 next year due to the outbreak of coronavirus. The wrestler says “Olympics are the most important thing in an athlete’s life and the deferment of the Games threw everything down the tube”. Beleniuk is the three-tie European champion and two-time world champion in Greco Roman style. Besides this, he is also the deputy minister of Verkhovna Rada.
Due to the Games getting postponed everything needs to be started from scratch and this has led to motivation problems for athletes. The 29-year-old wrestler says, “Until now, we do not have a calendar (international sporting events). There is talk that some competitions will begin at the end of the year. But at the moment there is nothing. Some athletes did not have an opportunity to train on the mat under quarantine. I admit that they really need to at least tacticaly feel all the charms of the Greco-Roman struggle (laughs).”
On what happens if there are no Olympics this year, he says, “I think it will be very sad if the Olympic Games do not take place in 2021. If we don’t have opportunities to represent your country to them,”
Beleniuk confirmed the Tokyo Olympics quota for Ukraine in the 87kg weight class after winning gold at the Nur-Sultan worlds. However, he is yet to confirm his place in Ukraine’s Olympic team. His biggest challenger for the spot is the current European Champion Semen Novikov.
