: How Olympic Athletes Are Coping with the Wait for the Postponed 2021 Games #WorldNEWS Wedding cupcakes may propel a javelin thrower to gold at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. In typical times, such a

How Olympic Athletes Are Coping with the Wait for the Postponed 2021 Games #WorldNEWS
Wedding cupcakes may propel a javelin thrower to gold at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. In typical times, such a statement would seem ridiculous. But these days, it sounds plausible.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck last year, Kara Winger, a three-time Olympian and the U. S. national record holder in the javelin, needed to adjust. Since she could no longer access indoor facilities for her typical strength and technique drills, she and her husband, former U. S. discus and shot-put thrower Russ Winger, connected a 30-ft. cable from their back fence to a hook at the rear of their house, running it through a metal tube that’s about a foot and a half long. On this neatly angled wire, which allows Winger to replicate proper javelin-throwing motion, she tosses the tube, once a portion of the cupcake stand Russ built for their 2014 wedding. “Both were made,” says Winger, “with love. ”

All over the world, the pandemic has forced athletes like Winger, with their Olympic hopes on hold after the postponement of the Games for a year, to find innovative ways to stay sharp during extended lockdown periods. Bottles of laundry detergent—and beer—have subbed in as weights. Norwegian wrestler Stig-Andre Berge did push-ups with his baby on his back; Oktawia Nowacka, a modern pentathlete from Poland, did squats while holding her dog. Brooke Raboutou, a U. S. climber, crawled along her kitchen counter, scaled the back of her stairs and maneuvered across her fireplace chimney, like Spider-Woman.
With much of the world now facing a COVID winter-—and the potential for further surges in cases and shutdowns—Olympic athletes may again need to rely on Spidey sense and pets and backyard contraptions as the postponed Games approach. With such creativity, however, comes the potential for crippling uncertainty. Olympic sports often offer a single shot at glory. Careers hinge on an event that occurs every four years, so any tweak to carefully crafted training routines can send the minds of elite athletes spiraling. And even with vaccine rollouts promising a safer 2021, and Olympic officials insisting the Games will go on this July, athletes are keenly aware that givens don’t exist. This year could somehow prove more disheartening than the last one. “We’re now going back to a space where you don’t know if the gym is going to be open tomorrow,” says U. S. fencer Daryl Homer, who trains in New York City. “It’s like Olympic dreams on hold, 2. 0. ”

David Zalubowski—APWinger uses a cable system to simulate throwing a javelin as she trains outside her home in Colorado Springs in April
No athlete is immune from disruption.