As the discussion surrounding the return of competitive sport intensifies, former Irish basketball captain and commentator Timmy McCarthy stressed the importance of putting human interest before sporting preference, especially with regard to the 2020 Olympics.
If things were progressing as many had expected 2020 to progress before the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, Timmy McCarthy would have been in his element.
Throughout what should have been a jam-packed summer of sport, the former Irish basketball captain, a panelist alongside former Dublin 'keeper Clíodhna O'Connor on Off The Ball's Sunday Paper Review, found himself calling for the utmost care and perspective to be taken when the decision to resume sport is made.
"We're living in abnormal circumstances," he remarked of the impact Covid-19 has had on lives the world over, "and you can't have normality in abnormal circumstances. For all of us who love watching sport and play sport, that has been the biggest loss. But the reality is that this virus has not gone away.
"We're putting a huge amount of pressure on - you see it with Pat Spillane and Colm O'Rourke calling for the GAA to act - but this is a scientific issue. Science should dictate this issue."
On the Sunday Paper Review this weekend, the particular case of the 2020 Olympics came under scrutiny.
As different countries allow for their athletes to resume training and meeting with their coaches, McCarthy considered the viability of hosting the event even one year on from its scheduled slot later this summer.
"If the Olympics is on in 2021 as it is currently planned," he began, "and we stay on that scientific road that is going to have us behind the curve-ball of other countries, our athletes would be behind their competitors when the competition comes around.
"Personally, I don't think we can make exemptions though. We've got to be very careful, because this is sport, guys. People are losing their lives and this is just sport.
"For all of us who love sport, and I know what this is about the effort that athletes put in for international sport, but the reality is that until we fix this issue we have to be able to take it on the chin that abnormal world we're in will have to remain until we can create a safe environment for the public.
"At the end of the day, humanity is more important than any sport. If you say to me, having the Olympics is worth the loss of one life, I'd say it is not. Scrap the Olympics for four years, it is not worth the loss of one life."
You can watch back the Sunday Paper Review with Clíodhna O'Connor and Timmy McCarthy here.
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