An Age-Old Question

Once the Olympics were officially postponed, one of the many questions the IOC and Tokyo organizers had to answer was one regarding age eligibility.  Some sports have minimum ages, which means a whole new group of athletes who thought they'd be too young to compete in Tokyo suddenly will be old enough.  Meanwhile, in men's soccer the reverse is true.  It's an under-23 tournament, so suddenly the birthday cut off went from 1997 to 1998.

The soccer question has already been answered.  FIFA announced that the eligibility for the men's soccer tournament will not change.  So, instead of a U-23 tournament, it'll be a U-24 tournament.  That's important because nations are allowed three "over-age" players.  Now the 23-year-olds won't count against that three.  Of course, they still need permission from their professional teams to play in the Olympics, but it's good that they clarified it so early.

Fourteen of the 16 spots in the Tokyo men's soccer tournament have already been clinched.  The last two will come from CONCACAF, which had its qualifying tournament postponed indefinitely (we all know the reason why).  Having that eligibility question answered will be helpful for the CONCACAF teams as they look to secure one of those last two spots.  Likewise, the other 14 nations have a year to think about their Olympic rosters.  But now they know that the 23-year-olds who helped them qualify will be available.

In gymnastics, it's the other way around.  Women must turn 16 in the Olympic year in order to be eligible.  As a result, female gymnasts born in 2005 or later weren't thinking about Tokyo.  They were targeting Paris 2024 as perhaps their only Olympic shot.  Now that might not necessarily be the case.  Suddenly they might be able to go to Tokyo after all.

Considering the team competition will only include four gymnasts per nation, that could make a huge difference.  Because deep countries like the U.S. and China were going to have tough decisions to make already.  Now, if you're talking about the prospect of potentially adding the top juniors to the mix, that makes the competition just to make Olympic teams that much more cutthroat.  And, let's not forget, one year can be a long time in gymnastics.

Much like FIFA, the FIG needs to act quickly so that there's clarity about the situation.  Because it's gonna make a huge difference if gymnasts who are currently 15 are suddenly eligible for Tokyo.  For the sake of everyone, especially the 15-year-olds, they need to answer the eligibility question sooner rather than later.  This way, once competition resumes, everyone will know if they have a shot at Tokyo or not.

Just as FIFA kept the qualifying birthday the same, the FIG should, as well.  The Olympics weren't postponed until two weeks ago.  Everyone went into this season knowing who was eligible and who wasn't.  The one-year delay was the result of something nobody could control.  It would be incredibly unfair to have all of these additional gymnasts suddenly become eligible in the middle of the qualifying period.  

They weren't eligible for Tokyo before, and they shouldn't be now.  Until last week, they knew their time would come four years from now in Paris.  That shouldn't change.  The FIG should keep December 31, 2004 as the cutoff in women's gymnastics.

Soccer and gymnastics aren't the only sports with a decision to make regarding age eligibility.  World Athletics does, as well.  The World U-20 Championships in Kenya were originally scheduled for July.  Like everything else, they've been postponed, likely until 2021.  And if they are pushed to next year, the birthday question comes up once again.

There's a lot of overlap in track & field.  A lot of athletes are good enough to compete in both their age-group championships and elite-level meets like the Olympics or World Championships.  Many do.  If the World U-20s are moved to next year, we'll likely see a number of athletes go right from Nairobi to Tokyo.  In 2022, it's entirely possible that some could even do the Grand Slam of the World Championships in Oregon, Commonwealth Games in England, European Championships in Munich, and World U-20 Championships (and possibly World Indoors, too).

While not nearly as high-profile as the senior-level meets, the World U-20 Championships are an important stepping stone to that level.  Some guy named Usain Bolt first burst onto the scene at the 2002 World Junior Championships (as they were called then) in his home country of Jamaica.  He's just one of many stars who went on to bigger and better after starting off at World U-20s.

Anyway, as the name suggests, the World U-20s are generally contested between 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds.  Once an athlete turns 21, they're considered a "senior" and no longer eligible for junior competition.  So, had the meet taken place this year as originally scheduled, it's pretty easy to figure out what year would've been the cutoff.

However, with the meet likely being moved to 2021, that creates a similar problem as the Olympic soccer tournament faced.  It makes everyone who turns 20 this year suddenly ineligible for the meet...through no fault of their own.  And, that would mean their only chance to compete internationally is at the senior level, whether or not they're ready for it.  That's not exactly fair, is it?

Especially with another World U-20 Championships set for 2022 (which will get them back on the every-other-year schedule), I'd make a one-time exception and have the 2021 meet be a World U-21 Championships.  That way, you're not depriving those athletes born in 2000 their opportunity to compete.  They've already lost their freshman college outdoor season.  Don't take another thing away from them.