The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has upended a carefully planned sporting calendar calibrated to line up with the Summer Games.

When the decision was taken in March to delay the games for safety reasons, nearly half of the athletes that had hoped to be in Tokyo for the Olympics still did not know for sure, and were immediately put in limbo.

As much of the world instituted strict lockdowns earlier in the year, to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, professional and elite sport events around the world had been cancelled.