By Neto Baptiste
US-based high jumper, Priscilla Frederick Loomis, has welcomed a decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan until 2021.
The Antiguan athlete, who is yet to hit the 1.96 meters [6.4 feet] qualifying mark for the Olympics, said that at the end of the day, preservation of human life must take priority.
“I completely agree with the IOC’s decision. The health of the human race is always more important and it will always take priority. I have been training since 2014 for the chance to win an Olympic medal for Antigua and Barbuda and the easiest thing to do right now would be to focus on the negative but we, right now, should be taking it moment by moment because you can’t take it all at once so I need to soak it all in and speak to my husband and to my coaches about the next step,” she said.
Loomis, the country’s 2019 Sportswoman of the Year, said she will use the 12-month delay to her advantage.
“It allows me time to work with my coaches and my doctors more, which is super helpful because moving forward we can focus on having me, in a healthy way, lose weight, working a little bit more on power and endurance in the weight room, a little more speed training so it allows me to change my workouts for the long haul,” the athlete said.
The high-jumper, who won silver at the 2019 Pam American Games in Lima, Peru, had said in a previous interview that she has turned to training at home and at the beach following a full scale lockdown due to the Coronavirus 19.