IOC considering adjustments to Olympic qualification process

On Tuesday, the IOC announced that they’re considering adjustments to national qualification processes for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. While 57 per cent of athletes have already qualified for the Games, there remain 43 per cent of the total field who haven’t had a chance. Due to the onslaught of cancellations and closures, the IOC recognizes that not all athletes will be given a fair shot at finding a place on the Olympic start line.

The organizers insist that the Games, as of now, will continue on schedule and discourages speculation otherwise.

RELATED: LIVE UPDATE: How coronavirus is affecting the track season

RELATED: Indoor workout inspiration from Canada’s Olympic hopefuls

The IOC’s message

In their Tuesday press release, officials said: “The IOC will work with the IFs [international federations] to make any necessary and practical adaptations to their respective qualification systems for Tokyo 2020, in line with the following principles:

1. All quota places that have already been allocated to date remain allocated to the NOCs and athletes that obtained them.

2. The possibility remains to use existing and scheduled qualification events, wherever these still have fair access for all athletes and teams.

3. All necessary adaptations to qualification systems and all allocation of remaining places will be:

a) based on on-field results (e.g. IF ranking or historical results); and

b) reflect where possible the existing principles of the respective qualification systems (e.g. use of rankings or continental/regional specific event results).

Any increase in athlete quotas will be considered on a case-by-case basis under exceptional circumstances, with the support of the Organizing Committee Tokyo 2020.”

RELATED: Coronavirus means no more snot rockets

What this means for runners

For runners, this means that the IOC will encourage federations (in this case, World Athletics) to adhere to their current qualification structure where possible and look at historical results where it’s impossible to adhere to that criteria.

This means there’s the potential for an Olympic team to be chosen based on 2019 results, instead of 2020, and for federations to forgo a trials all together. The Canadian Track and Field Trials are scheduled for June 25-28. According to Athletics Canada, there’s a targeted date of early April for any official updates to the qualification criteria.

All Canadian Olympic team selection is ultimately up to Athletics Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee. As of now the Canadian Olympic swimming and kayaking trials, set to take place in April, have both been postponed.