Ladies Lotte Kopecky after postponement Olympics: "I understand, but I also felt ready for it."

Lotte Kopecky wasn’t surprised when she heard the news this afternoon that the Olympic Games that should have taken place in Tokyo from 24 July till 9 August were postponed until 2021. She understands the decision in the light of the current corona crisis. Lotte would ride the madison, together with Jolien D’hoore. One of them would also take part in the omnium for Belgium.

Lotte Kopecky: “The past few days I already thought that the Olympic Games would be postponed. Especially after the Canadian Olympic Committee announced yesterday that they would not participate in the Olympics if those would take place this summer. There were similar signals from Australia and I read that an IOC member said the Games wouldn’t take place this year anymore. But the official news about the postponement came faster than expected.”

“Of course this is unfortunate, because just like all other athletes I was really looking forward to Tokyo 2020. I also felt ready for it, just like I was ready to tackle the Spring races. But health comes first. And that’s why I understand this decision. Also because not all athletes would have been able to prepare themselves for the Games in similar circumstances.”​​​​​​​

“It’s good that we now already know that the Games won’t take place this year and that it didn’t take more weeks before the decision was made final. Now we wait until we can race again. I took some rest the past week, with only power training and running sessions. This week I’ll get back on the bike. We’ll see when we can start racing again, but the main concern now is everybody’s health.”