Athletes who are not good enough in 2020, but will shine in 2021

[heywoodu 15,145]

We all know by now: the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are going ahead, but they'll be held in 2021. It's a little confusing, but never mind, here we are. This sucks for athletes in their last planned year of their career, who will either have to postpone retirement and try and stay fit for another year or will miss out on their Olympic chance altogether - specifically sad for athletes who hadn't competed at Olympics yet, those who did at least already have an experience most athletes won't get.

 

There's enough negativity though, so on to the brighter side: plenty of young athletes are good at the moment, but possibly not quite good enough yet to be considered serious medal contenders. So here we are, which athletes - who currently can't really be considered main favourites - do you think will benefit most and improve so much they are main favourites come Tokyo 2020, in 2021?

[Fly_like_a_don 1,090]

This is like a news report topic 

[heywoodu 15,145]

2 minutes ago, Fly_like_a_don said:

This is like a news report topic 

 

A not all-caps thread title as well, it's absolute anarchy.

 

My first name is going to be Arno Kamminga. He might have already been a serious medal contender though, since he's been swimming incredibly fast in the breast stroke in the past few months. However, as he said himself, he has never made a big final yet and with another year to go, I think he's going for a medal in Tokyo  

[Dunadan 1,103]

Probably no one...I am afraid the pandemic will slow down in the coming months and then restart forcing the IOC to cancel the Olympics.

Also, we have to see how the qualification will work in many sports first.

[MHSN 3,621]

only young athletes ? because I can name Sohrab Moradi, he is still recovering from a surgery and one more year will give him a better chance to reach his max records. even though he is also getting older and beside that he still has to "qualify" and we have to wait to see the modified qualification rules.

 

but one athlete I can name is Amir Hossein Zare in wrestling, he is 19 and he beat several world medalists already (including world champion Geno Petriashvili) but I think he needs 1 or 2 more years to become world #1.

 

also I can name that Russian kid Kurban Shiraev I think he will beat world champion Gazhimurad Rashidov next year to be Russia's representative in Tokyo

[Gianlu33 4,574]

I think that Pilato will be good enough in the 100m...

[Werloc 3,164]

Hmmm, for Lithuania perhaps Edis Matusevičius (javelin throw) if he throws something close to 90m again. 

 

Don't see that many other athletes in our court that would benefit from only a year. 

[thiago_simoes 1,423]

Rebeca Andrade in artistic gymnastics. I hope she stays healthy.

[bmo 194]

He is probably good enough for 2020, but Sky Brown should be better off with the games in 2021.

[LDOG 2,418]

Our team sees no benefit from this, most of the best athletes are old. There are some young people that should be better but I don't have any evidence that they would be much better in one year.